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A  TOUR 


ST.  LOUIS; 


OR,   THE 


'aside  Life  of  a  Great  City. 


/ 


BV 


J.  A.  DACUS,  PH.  D., 
JAMES  W.    BUEL, 


Members  of  the 
St.  Louis  Press. 


PRICE,   :  :  :  :    Si. 50. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

WESTERN   PUBLISHING   COMPANY, 

JONES    &    GRIFFIN. 


ST.    LOUIS: 

187S. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by 

JONES  &  GRIFFIN, 
In  the  ofliice  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


Printed  by 

Globe-Democrat  Job  Printing  Co., 

St.  Louis,  Mo. 


F 

3  'DS. 


TO 

HON.  THOMAS    ALLEN, 

WHOSE 
SCHOLARLY    ATTAINMENTS,.  LIBERAL    ENDOWMENTS,  BOLD 
CONCEPTION   AND    UNDAUNTED    EXECUTION 
OF  GRAND  ENTERPRISES, 
HAVE     CONSPICUOUSLY     PROMOTED     THE     GROWTH     OF    ST.  LOUIS 
COMMERCE,     AND     JIADE     HIM     A     TRULY    REPRE- 
SENTATIVE   MAN,     THIS     BOOK    IS 
CORDIALLY  DEDICATED. 


ik 


5C>87 


PUBLISHERS'   NOTICE. 


The  work  which  we  now  have  the  honor  to  offer  to  the  public  is 
one  which  has  cost  us  no  little  anxiety,  labor  and  expense.  We 
flatter  ourselves  that  our  exertions  have  resulted  in  the  production  of 
a  volume  which  reflects  no  dishonor  on  the  citj'  from  which  it  ema- 
nates, and  concerning  which  it  treats.  No  similar  literarj'  under- 
taking has  before  been  attempted  for  the  proud  metropolis  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley. 

We  have  taken  special  pains  to  describe  only  the  distinctively 
representative  commercial  institutions  of  the  cit}',  those  which  reflect 
the  wealth  and  business  of  St.  Louis,  making  the  description  histori- 
cal in  order  to  subserve  the  double  purpose  of  preserving  the  record 
of  our  individual  interests,  and  to  illustrate  the  sagacity  and  indom- 
itable will  which  characterizes  the  West. 

In  carr3ing  out  our  design,  we  have  met  with  many  difficulties, 
and  have  been  compelled  to  suffer  discouragements  of  no  ordinary 
character.  There  are  features  of  social  life  found  here  which  do 
not  exist  elsewhere,  and  which  well  deserve  special  examination 
and  delineation.  This  we  have  endeavored  to  do,  with  what  success 
the  public  must  ultimately-  be  the  tribunal  of  last  resort,  and  to  that 
public  opinion  we  now  respectfull}'  appeal. 

The  inside  life  of  a  great  metropolis  is  not  eas}^  to  describe. 
There  are  social  developments  here  as  well  as  elsewhere,  a  description 
of  which  is  not  always  pleasant,  and  yet  such  an  omission  would 
leave  the  work  incomplete  as  an  account  of  the  actual  condition  of 
the  people  at  the  present  time.  But  these  sombre  pictures  have  been 
drawn  with  great  care  and  delicacy,  and  while  the  subjects  are  not 
all  of  an  engaging  character,  still  the  manner  of  treatment  may  well 
commend  the  work  to  all  classes  of  the  people. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  the  publishers  to  present  true  pictures  of 
the  phases  of  metropolitan  life  encountered  in  our  times.  We  believe 
we  have  succeeded.  In  subsequent  editions  it  is  the  design  of  the 
publishers  to  make  such  additions  and  improvements  as  the  changed 
conditions  of  the  social  life  of  the  people  of  St.  Louis  may  demand. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


DESCRIPTIVE. 

PAGE. 

History  of  St.  Louis,          -           -           -           -           -           -           -  5 

Commerce  of  St.  Louis,           ..-.-.  22 

St.  Louis,  tlie  Future  Commercial  Entrepot  of  the  World,     -           -  26 

Water-Works, 30 

City  Hall, 34 

Court-House,     -..-.--_  36 

Custom-House  and  Post-Office,    -           -           -           -           -           -  37 

Markets,             .---.--.  35 

Hotels,         .--.-----  40 

McDowell's  Old  College,         - 42 

Parks,           -            - 44 

Shaw's  Garden,             ...---.  50 

Fair  Grounds,         -           -           -           -           -           -            -           -  52 

Theatres,            ._-..---  56 

Music,           .           -           -            -            -            -           ...  59 

Art,          .--..--.-  65 
Libraries,     ---------79 

Public  Schools,             .......  83 

Washington  University,    -------  90 

St.  Louis  University,     -------  93 

St.  Louis  Seminary,           -------  95 

Mrs.  Cuthbert'a  Seminary,      ------  95 

Visitation  Female  Academy,         ------  97 

Jones'  Commercial  College,    ------  98 

Missouri  Medical  College,            ------  loi 

Churches,          .-,-...--  108 

Merchants'  Exchange,       -------  123 

The  Bridge,       --------  125 

Union  Depot,          --....--  128 

Railway  Tunnel,            -.-....  130 

Hon.  Thomas  Allen,         -.-.-_-  132 


ii  CONTENTS. 

ST.  LOUIS  ENTERPRISE. 


PAGE. 


St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern  Railway,  -  -  -  147 

St.  Louis  &  Southeastern  Railway,    -----  1^» 

St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  Railway,      -----  loS 

Vandalia  Railroad,       -  -  -  -  -  "  "  ^^^ 

St.  Louis,  Kansas  City  &  Northern  Railway,     -  -  -  -  1G4 

Missouri  Tacific  Railway,        ------  ^'^^ 

St.  Louis  National  Bank,  -------  171 

Broadway  Savings  Bank,        ------  17o 

P.  F.  Keleher&Co.,         -------  17G 

Bank  of  Commerce,     -------  177 

Bartholow,  Lewis  &  Co.,  -  -  -  -  -  -  178 

Express  Companies,    -------  179 

Samuel  C.  Davis  &  Co.,    -------  181 

Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.,    -------  187 

J.  H.  Wear,  Boogher  &  Co.,        ------  189 

Wm.  Barr  &  Co., -  192 

D.  Crawford  &  Co.,  -  -  -     '      -  -  -  -  195 

H.  D.  Mann  &  Co., -         -  -  200 

St.  Bernard  Dollar  Store,  -  -  -  -  -  -  201 

€.  E.  Blell, 203 

L.  Bauraan  &  Co. ,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  205 

Mermod.  Jaccard  &  Co.,         _..---  207 

J.  B.  Legg&Co., -  -  208 

A.  A.  Mellier,    --------  210 

Cheever,  Burchard  &  Co.,  --....  212 

Story  &  Camp, 214 

Singer  Manufacturing  Co.,  --_-..  215 

Wheeler  &  Wilson,       -------  216 

Eugene  Papin  &  Co.,        -------        218 

Aloe  &  Hernstein,        ------.  220 

Fairbanks  &  Co.,    -----_..        221 

H.  Griffin  &  Sons,         -------  222 

L.  Dresser,  ------..        223 

Thompson,  Teasdale  &  Co.,    -  -  -  -        '    -  .  226 

Eugene  Jaccard  &  Co.,      -------        227 

M.  A.  Wolff  &  Co., 228 

H.  &  L.  Cliase,        ----.--_        229 

Excelsior  Manufacturing  Co.,  -----  231 

St.  Louis  Stamping  Co.,    -  -  -  -  -  -  .        235 

St.  Louis  Mantel  and  Grate  Co. ,--..'.  237 


CONTENTS.  iii 

PAGE. 

St.  Louis  iiot-Pressed  Nut  and  Bolt  Co. ,           -           -           -           -  2;J9 

Western  Oil  Co.,           -----_.  240 

Collier  \  liite  Lead  and  Oil  Co..            -           -           -           -           .  943 

Vane,  Cf  vert  &  Co..    ----_._  247 

L.  M.  Rumsey  &  Co.,         ---_.__  24S 

Semple,  Birge  &  Co.,   ----._.  250 

Wardwell  Manufacturing  Co.,     ---_..  254 

M.  M.  Buclv&  Co.,        -----_.  256 

Curtis  &  Co.,           -------.  257 

J.  K.  Cummings,           ----._.  958 

Beard  &Bro.,         ----..._  258 

Deere,  Mansur  &  Co.,              ---__.  259 

St.  Louis  Type  Foundry,  ----_..  262 

F.  A.  Durgin,  ----._..  264 
Metal  Stamping  and  Enameling  Co..  -  -  -  _  .  267 
Advance  Elevator,  ----_..  269 
St.  Louis  Grain  Elevator,  --.-..  271 
Central  Grain  Elevator,           ----__  272 

W.  J.  Lemp, .            .            -  275 

E.  Anheuser  Co.,          ---..._  279 

American  Wine  Co.,          ---_...  282 

Wood  &  Lee,      ------_.  285 

David  Nicholson,    ------..  286 

G.  L.Joy  &  Co.,           ---.--.  287 
Gaff.  Fleischmann  &  Co.,             ----..  288 

Dozier,  Weyl  &  Co.,     -------  290 

Jos.  Garneau,         -----.__  292 

Vienna  Model  Bakery,              ---_..  296 

Sprague  &  Butler,              -----..  294 

Geo.  Milford,     ------..  296 

Tony  Faust,            --------  297 

Bessehl's  Bazaar,          --_.-_.  298 

Shepherd  &  Ginocchio,      -------  301 

Mississippi  Ice  Co.,       -------  302 

Gray  &  Baker  Book  Co.,  -------  303 

Willie  H.  Gray, 307 

Giesecke,  Meysenberg  &  Co.,      ---.-.  309 

J.  L.  Isaacs,       --.__._.  3J1 

Brown  &  Hilder,    --------  313 

O.  J.  Lewis  &  Co.,        ----_-_  315 

Gray,  Bowman  &  Co.,       ----.-.  313 

L.  P.  Ewald&Co., 320 


IV 


CONTENTS. 


A.  M.  Leslie«fcCo., 
New  York  Dental  Rooms, 
Dr.  Geo.  F.  Adams, 
GibertBros.,     - 
Carroll  &  Powell,  - 

Life  Association, 
National  Stock  Yards, 
Reilley  &  Wolfort. 

B.  H.  Newell, 
James  Blackman, 

St.  Louis  Shot  Tower, 

A.  C.  Dunlevy, 

Yaeger  Milling  Co.. 

Becktold  &  Co., 

R.  F.  Adams, 

Texas  Land  and  Immigration  Co.. 

Lonergan  &  Thiel, 

Travelers'  Insurance  Co., 

Carbondale  Coal  and  Coke  Co.,  - 

Globe-Democrat  Job  Printing  Co., 

J.  Stokes,    -  -  -  - 

Larape  &  Lambrecht^ 

Hot  Springs, 

Arlington  Hotel, 

Grand  Central  Hotel, 

Waverly  Hotel, 

Big  Iron  Bath-House, 


PAGE. 

321 

323 

325 

326 

328 

329 

331 

334 

335 

335 

33G 

338 

339 

341 

342 

345 

344 

346 

347 

349 

350 

555 

351 

361 

363 

364 

365 


SOCIAL  FEATUEES. 


Residences, 
Summer  Pastimes, 
Fire  Department, 
Metropolitan  Police, 
Pariahs  in  the  Docks.  - 
Ways  that  are  Dark, 
Street  Arabs, 

Life  Among  the  Lowly,     - 
Mystic  St.  Louis, 
Metropolitan  Vagabonds, 
Ghouls  of  the  Cemeteries, 


369 
378 
384 
383 
392 
396 
406 
412 
419 
425 
429 


CONTENTS.  V 

PAGE. 

Street  "Vendors,      ----....  435 

Dandies  and  Damsels,            .           .           ,           -           ^           ,  449 

Social  Undercurrents,         .-._.„.  449 

Night  in  the  Streets,     ---.__-  453 

Crimes  of  a  Great  City,     ----.__  433 

Gamblers,          ----_..,  474 

Drinking  Customs,             ----...  473 

The  Bright  Side, 482 

The  Insane,            -           -            -..--.  499 

House  of  Kefuge,         --.....  513 

The  Poor,    -----.._.  520 

The  Four  Courts,          --..-..  526 

The  Press,   ---.-....  536 


LTST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Hon.  Thomas  Allen,         -  _  . 

Old  Cliouteau  Mansion,  -  .  - 

Old  Green  Tree  Hotel,  1S04, 
Gov.  McXair's  Mansion,  .  _  . 

South  ]*ass  Jetties,  -  -  - 

High-Service  Engine  Building,  Water  Works, 
Standpipe,  Water  Works, 
City  Hall,  -  -  -  .  . 

Court-House,  -  .  .  . 

Custom-IIouse  and  Post-Office, 
Union  Market,        -  -  -  _ 

Lucas  Market,  -  -  -  -     '     . 

Planters'  House,    -  -  -  . 

Liiidell  Hotel,    -  -  -  -  . 

Old  Gratiot  Street  Prison, 
Lal<e,  Lafayette  Park,  -  -  _ 

Pagoda,  Lafayette  Park,  -  -  _ 

Police  Headquarters,  Lafayette  Park, 
Interior  of  Plant-House,  Shaw's  Garden, 
Pavilion,  Shaw's  Garden,        -  -  . 

Museum,  Shaw's  Garden, 
House  of  Public  Comfort,  Fair  Grounds,      - 
Mercantile  Library,  -  -  . 

Public  School  Library,  -  _  _ 

High  School,  .... 

Peabody  School ,  -  -  .  . 

Des  Peres  School,  -  .  _ 

Kindergarten,    -  j  .  .  _ 

St.  Louis  University,         -  _  _ 

St.  Louis  Seminary,     -  .  _  _ 

Convent  of  the  Visitation, 
Missouri  Medical  College,     - 


PAGE. 

-  Frontispiece 

12 
14 
17 
2S 
32 
33 
34 
36 
38 

-  -  39 

40 
40 
41 
42 
45 
4G 
47 
-  r,o,  51 
61 
52 
63 
79 
81 
83 
84 
85 
87 
92 
94 
96 
101 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  vii 

^  FACE 

St.  Alphonsus'  Church,    -------  109 

Clayton  Church,           ----___  m 

St.  George's  Church,         ----_..  ij2 

Mt.  Calvary  Church,    -            -            -            _           .           .            .  jjo 

First  Presbyterian  Church,           -            -           -            .           .           .  jj^ 

Pilgrim  Congregational  Church,        -           -           -           -           .  jjg 

Trinitarian  Congregational  Church,       -----  117 

Second  Baptist  Church,           -           -           -           .           .           _  jjg 

Kirkwood  Baptist  Church,           ------  119 

Temple  of  the  Gates  of  Truth,           -           -           -           .           _  120 

Mt.  Sinai  Chapel,               -----._  12I 

Merchants'  Exchange,             ----..  j22 

The  Bridge, -^^Q 

Union  Depot,     -----...  J28 

Arrival  of  Emigrants,       -------  129 

St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern  Railway,       -           -           .  146 

St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  Railway,      -           -           -           .           .  159 

Railroad  Bridge,  Fairmount  Park,     -           -           -           -           .  igj 

Altoona  Station,      -----_..  jq^ 

Railroad  Bridge,  St.  Charles,              -           -           -           -           .  155 

Interior  St.  Louis  National  Bank,            -           -           -           _           .  170 

Samuel  C.  Davis  &  Co.,           ---.__  jgn 

Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.,          ----..  -^gg 

J.  H.  Wear,  Boogher  &  Co.,  --.-..  jqq 

Wm.  Barr  &  Co.,    ------..  193 

D.  Crawford  &  Co.,      -----..  195 

St.  Bernard  Dollar  Store,  C  A.  Fowle  &  Co.,            -           _           -  201 

A.  A.  Mellier's  Drug  Store,    ----..  21O 

Singer  Building  and  Trade  Mark,           -           -           -           .           .  215 

Eclipse  Spring  Buggy,  E.  Papiu  &  Co.,        -           -           -           .  219 
Dresser's  Nickel  Watches            -           -           -           .           _            223  224 

Jaccard's  Building,       -----_.  227 

Chase's  Bag  Factory  and  Warehouse,    -           -           -           .           _  229 

Warehouse  and  Office,  Excelsior  Manufacturing  Co.,        -           -  231 

Charter  Oak  Stove.  Excelsior  Manufacturing  Co.,       -           -           -  233 

Trade  Mark,  St.  Louis  Stamping  Co.,            -           -           -           _  235 

Collier  White  Lead  and  Oil  Co.,           -           -           -           -           .  242 

Factory,  L.  M.  Rumsey  &  Co.,           -----  249 

Warehouse  and  Office,  Semple,  Birge  &  Co.,     -           -           -           -  251 

Wardwell  Sewing  Machine,    -----.  254 

Saw  Factory,  Curtis  &  Co.,          -           -           -           -           -           .  257 


Viii  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE. 

259 


John  Deere,  of  Deere,  Mansur&  Co.,  -  -  -  - 

Moline  Plow  Works, 260 

St.  Louis  Type  Foundry,         ------  262 

Trade  Mark,  Metal  Stamping  and  Enameling  Co..        -           -           -  267 

Advance  Elevator,        -------  269 

Sr.  L'luis  Grain  Elevator,              .-.---  271 

Central  Grain  Elevator,           ------  272 

Brewery,  W.  J.  Lemp  &  Co.,       ------  274 

Brewery,  E.  Anheuser  Co.,     ------  278 

Grocery,  David  Nicholson,           .--.--  286 

Bakery.  Dozier,  Weyl  &  Co.,              -           -           -           -           -  290 

Restaurants,  Sprague  &  Butler,   -----            294,  295 

Restaurant,  Geo.  Milford,       ------  290 

Restaurant,  Tony  Faust,              -            -            -            -           -           -  297 

Isaacs'  Paper  Emporium,        ------  310 

Oflfice  and  Warehouse,  Gray,  Bowman  &  Co.,   -            -            -           -  318 

Teeth  and  Saddlebags,  A.  M.Leslie  «fc  Co.,  -  -  -      322,323 

National  Stock  Yards,       -------  330 

St.  Louis  Shot  Tower,             ------  336 

Yaeger  Mills,         --------  340 

Globe-Democrat  Job  Printing  Co.,    -----  349 

Creek,  Hot  Springs,          -.-..--  352 

Upper  End  of  Hot  Springs,    ------  353 

Arsenic  Spring,  Hot  Springs,       ----__  354 

Conduits  for  the  Magical  Waters.  Hot  Springs,      -           -           -  355 

The  Encampment,  Hot  Springs,             -----  356 

Big  Iron  Spring,  Hot  Springs,            -            -           -           -            .  355 

Hot  and  Cold  Springs,  Hot  Springs,      -----  357 

Chalybeate  Spring?,  Hot  Springs,     -----  353 

Sulphur  Springs,  Hot  Springs,    ------  358 

Business  Portion  of  Hot  Springs,      -           -           -           .           .  359 

Arlington  House,  Hot  Springs,  -----,  352 

Grand  Central  Hotel,  Hot  Springs,               -           -           .           .  353 

Waverly  Hotel,  Hot  Springs,       ----..  354 

Big  Iron  Bath  House,  Hot  Springs,  -           -           -           -           ,  ^qq 

Hume  of  G.  L.  Joy,           ------.  370 

Home  of  A.  R.  Newcomb,       ------  371 

Home  of  Hon.  E.  O.  Stanard,      -----„  372 

Home  of  Chas.  H.  Peck,          ----..  373 

Home  of  Hampden  Mepham,       ------  375 


I 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  IX 

PAOB. 

Home  of  A.  O.  Grubb,            -            ,            -           .                        _  37g 

Bodeman's  Grove,  --------  382 

H.  Clay  Sexton,                        ---...  336 

James  McDonough,            ---...-  388 

Police  Court,    --------  393 

Pocket-book  Dropping  Game,     ------  397 

Restoring  Stolen  Property,     ------  400 

"  Snide"  Jewelry  Sale,     -------  402 

Opening  "  Greeney's  "  Eyes,  ------  403 

Street  Arab's  Home,          -------  409 

Night  Scene,  "Castle  Thunder," 414 

By-Court,  Clabber  Alley,              -----            .  41G 

A  Kerry  Patch  Residence,      ------  413 

A  Fortune  Teller  at  Home,           ------  420 

Genus  Tramp,   --------  427 

Grave  Robbers  at  Work,  -------  433 

Street  Vendors,              -------  435 

A  Happy  Some,     ----•«--  452 

The  Wages  of  Sin,        -           - 453 

Saloon  on  Chestnut  Street,           -           -----  464 

Old  Jail,  where  Wilson  was  executed,          -           -           -           -  469 

Bar  Room  Scene,               -.,._.-  480 

Thomas  Morrison,        -.._--.  485 

German  Protestant  Orphans'  Home,       -           -           -           .           -  490 

St.  Louis  Hospital,       --...--  493 

Insane  Asylum,      --------  498 

Four  Courts, 527 

Republican  Building,  1822,          -...--  537 

William  Hyde, 539 

Republican  Building,  1873,          ------  540 

Joseph  B.  McCullagh, 543 

Globe-Democrat  Building,          ------  544 

Times  Building,            -------  545 

Journal  Building,              -------  647 

John  A.  Dillon, 549 

Anzeiger  Building,            -------  550 

A.  B.  Cunningham,     -------  551 


HISTORY  OF  ST.  LOUIS. 


A  little  over  a  century  ago  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
was  the  possession  of  France,  and  bore  the  general  name  of 
Louisiana,  though  its  northern  half  was  known  as  "  Upper 
Louisiana,"  or  "  The  Illinois."  The  seat  of  the  Government, 
which  extended  over  this  region,  was  at  New  Orleans.  In 
1762,  D'Abadie,  then  Governor  General,  granted  to  Pierre 
Laclede  Ligueste  and  his  associates,  under  the  name  of  "The 
Louisiana  Fur  Company,"  the  privilege  of  trading  with  the 
Indians  on  the  Missouri  and  west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  with 
authority  to  establish  such  posts  as  they  might  think  fit  in 
furtherance  of  their  enterprise.  The  next  year  Laclede  set  out 
to  explore  the  country  assigned  to  him,  accompanied,  among 
others,  by  two  youths,  afterwards  well-known  citizens  of  this 
place,  the  brothers  Auguste  and  Pierre  Chouteau.  Having 
carefully  examined  every  jjoint  on  the  river,  not  omitting  Ste. 
Genevieve,  which  had  then  for  ten  years  been  the  headquar- 
ters of  a  considerable  trade  in  peltry  and  lead,  he  satisfied 
himself  that  no  other  site  presented  the  advantages  sought  for 
by  him  to  so  great  an  extent  as  the  spot  on  which  now  stands 
St.  Louis.  It  was,  at  the  time  when  Laclede  first  set  foot 
upon  it,  a  beautiful  expanse  of  undulating  prairie,  free  from 
woods,  save  at  one  point  on  the  river  bank,  near  the  center  of 
the  present  city,  which  was  then  embellished  by  a  grove  of 
noble  forest  trees.  He  therefore  resolved  to  establish  his 
chief  trading  post  here  ;  and  on  the  15th  of  February,  1764, 
carried  that  resolve  into  execution  by  taking  formal  possession 
of  it,  and  naming  it  St.  Louis. 

In  1778,  being  then  on  his   return  from  New  Orleans  to 
St.   Louis,  Laclede    was  overtaken    by  a  fatal  illness,   and 

[S] 


6  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

breathed  his  last  near  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas.  There  his 
remains  wore  interred.  The  exact  spot  chosen  for  his  final 
resting-place  is  now  unknown  ;  but  his  memory  has  not  been 
suffered  to  sink  into  the  same  forgetfulness.  As  it  is  identi- 
fied with  the  origin,  so  it  has  been  associated  with  the  growth, 
and  Avill  share  in  the  future  glories  of  a  great  metropolis. 

Tiic  establishment  of  St.  Louis  was  contemporaneous  with 
the  "  Treaty  of  Paris,"  by  which  France  ceded  all  her  pos- 
sessions east  of  the  Mississippi,  save  New  Orleans,  to  Great 
Britain,  and  all  of  them  west  of  that  river,  as  well  as  New 
Orleans,  to  Spain.  At  that  time,  there  were  in  "  The  Illinois," 
several  thousand  French,  inhabiting  little  villages  scattered 
chiefly  along  the  line  of  the  trail,  which  connected  the  settle- 
ments in  that  region  with  the  older  and  more  populous  towns 
of  Canada.  These  inhabitants  so  disliked  the  British  rule  that 
many  of  them  crossed  the  river  to  join  their  brethren  in  St. 
Louis,  and  to  found  other  villages  on  this  side  ;  such  as  Caron- 
delet,  established  first  as  Louisburgh,  by  Delor  D.  Tregette, 
in  1767;  Les  Petifes  Co^'e.s,  subsequently  St.  Andrews,  and 
now  St.  Charles,  by  Blanchette  Chasseur,  in  1769  ;  and  Flor- 
isant,  for  a  time  called  St.  Ferdinand,  after  the  King  of  Spain, 
which  name  the  township  still  bears,  by  Beaurosier  Dunegant, 
in  1776.  Among  those  who,  at  that  time,  repaired  to  St. 
Louis  from  Illinois,  was  St.  Ange  De  Bellerive,  once  com- 
mandant of  the  French  military  post.  Fort  Chartres.  He 
came  here  in  1765,  and  was  immediately  invested  with  civil 
and  military  power  over  "Upper  Louisiana,'  though,  of 
course,  without  a  shadow  of  right  beyond  the  acclaim  of  the 
inhabitants.  To  such  an  extent  did  he  exercise  the  authority 
thus  assumed  by  him,  that  he  made  numerous  grants  of  land, 
which  were  suffered  to  stand  by  his  Spanish  successors,  and 
have  since  been  confirmed  by  the  United  States.  Even  though 
a  body  of  Spanish  troops,  under  Eios,  had,  in  1768,  made 
their  appearance  at  St.  Louis  with  a  claim  of  possession  for 
the  Spanish  monarch,  which  was  peaceably  allowed,  the  au- 
thority of  St.  Ange  continued  in  full  vigor  until  1770.  This 
anomaly  may  be  explained  by  the  condition  of  political  afiairs 
in  New  Orleans,  it  not  being  till  1769,  after  serious  collisions^ 
that  under  O'Reilly,  the  representative  of  the  King  of  Spain, 


HISTORICAL.  7 

the   transfer,  so   unpalatable  to  tlie  French,  was   finally  ac- 
quiesced in  at  the  capital  of  the  country. 

The  first  lawful  governor  of  Upper  Louisiana  was  Pedro 
Piernas,  who  took  possession  late  in  1770,  and  was  succeeded 
in  1775  by  Francisco  Cruzat,  who  gave  place,  in  177H,  to 
Fernando  De  Leyba.  To  Leyba,  in  1780,  succeeded  Cruzat, 
former  Governor.  The  Spanish  line,  continuing  through 
Manuel  Perez  and  Zenon  Trudeau,  came  to  an  end  with  Carlos 
Dehault  Delassus,  in  1804,  with  the  surrender  of  the  Terri- 
tory to  the  United  States. 

In  1769,  Pontiac,  the  events  of  whose  famous  history  have 
been  dramatized,  came  as  a  friend  of  St.  Ange  on  a  visit  to 
St.  Louis.  While  here  he  was  invited  to  an  Indian  feast  held 
near  Cahokia,  and  going,  lost  his  life  during  the  carouse,  by 
the  hands  of  a  Kaskaskia  Indian,  who  is  said  to  have  been  in- 
stigated by  an  English  trader.  The  dead  body  of  the  mur- 
dered chief  was  brought  by  his  friends  into  this  place,  and 
interred  not  far  from  a  fort  which  once  stood  near  the  present 
intersection  of  Broadway  and  Cherry  streets.  The  conse- 
quences of  this  murder  were  terrible  to  the  Illini  nation,  who 
were  extirpated  by  the  Ottawas  in  revenge  for  the  death  of 
their  war  chief. 

The  next  incident  of  imj^ortance  in  the  annals  of  the  place 
is  one  of  the  most  memorable,  for  its  being  the  only  instance 
in  which  war  has  been  brought  to  its  doors.  In  1779,  Great 
Britain,  being  then  in  the  midst  of  our  war  for  independence, 
and  also  at  war  with  France  and  Spain,  word  came  to  St. 
Louis  that  the  English  commandant  at  Mackinaw  was  plan- 
ning a  descent  on  the  village.  In  consequence  measures  of 
defence  M^ere  taken  by  the  construction  of  a  stockade,  con- 
sisting of  upright  posts  set  in  two  rows  and  filled  in  with 
earth,  and  carried  round  the  exterior  of  the  village,  with  three 
openings  for  egress  to  the  "  Commons  "  and  the  Common  Field 
outside.  At  either  extremity  of  this  stockade  was  a  fort,  and 
the  openings  were  commanded  by  cannon.  The  next  year 
fourteen  hundred  savages,  said  to  have  been  led  by  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  British  regulars,  were  on  their  march  from  Lake 
Michigan,  and  in  May  had  reached  the  Illinois  shore,  opposite 
St.  Louis,  where  they  lay  in  ambush.     Here  they  had  settled 


8  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

that  the  town  should  be  assaulted  on  the  26th  of  that  month. 
On  the  day  previous  fell  in  that  year  the  feast  of  Corpus 
Christi,  a  holiday,  in  which  all  the  vilhigers  were  out  on  the 
Commons  gathcrini:^  strawberries.  Had  the  attack  been  made 
ou  that  day,  the  town  would  have  been  taken  and  doul)tless 
destroyed.  As  it  was,  the  26th  found  several  persons  outside 
the  enclosure,  in  the  Common  Field,  when  the  enemy  appeared 
on  this  side  of  the  river.  Of  these,  fifteen  or  twenty  were 
killed,  and  some  of  them  after  death  horribly  mangled  by  the 
Indians,  as  is  not  unfrequently  the  practice  of  savage  tribes. 
The  assailants  advanced  upon  the  town,  but  met  with  so  de- 
termined a  resistance  that,  after  many  ineffectual  elforts  to 
force  an  entrance,  and  sufiering  much  loss,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  retire. 

This  departure,  it  has  been  suggested,  was  occasioned  by 
the  ai)pearance  of  Col.  George  Rogers  Clark,  with  five  hun- 
dred Americans  from  Kaskaskia,  who,  aware  of  the  danger  to 
which  the  French  at  St.  Louis — the  allies  of  the  Americans 
then  struggling  for  their  independence — were  exposed,  had  ad- 
vanced to  their  relief.  The  year  1780,  thus  signalized,  was 
afterwards  known  as  ^^L'Anneedu  Grand  Coup  " — or,  "Year 
of  the  Great  Blow."  We  may  add  that  Leyba  died  that  year, 
it  is  supposed  of  mortified  feelings,  and  was  buried  in  the  old 
village  church,  "  in  front  of  the  right  hand  balustrade,  having 
received  all  the  sacraments  of  our  mother,  the  Holy  Church," 
as  set  forth  by  the  certificate  of  interment,  signed  by  Father 
Bernard,  "a  Catholic  Priest  and  apostolic  Missionary  Curate 
of  St.  Louis,  country  of  Illinois,  Province  of  Louisiana,  Bish- 
opric of  Cuba." 

This  attempt  at  a  surprise  of  the  village,  led  Governor 
Cruzat,  Leyba's  successor,  to  the  construction  of  new  fortifi- 
cations. At  the  river  bank,  near  the  spot  now  occupied  by 
the  Floating  Docks,  there  was  a  stone  tower  called  the  "  Half 
Moon,"  and  westwardly  of  it,  Avhere  now  Broadway  and 
Cherry  Street  intersects,  a  stone  "  Bastion,"  between  which 
was  another  stone  fort.  To  these  were  added,  by  Cruzat,  a 
half-dozen  square  or  circular  stone  fortresses,  forty  feetni  diam- 
eter and  twenty  feet  high,  which  were  connected  by  a  high  and 
stout  stockade  of  cedar  posts.     These  forts  were  kept  supplied 


HISTORICAL.  9 

with  munitions  of  war,  and  well  manned.  One  of  them,  at 
about  where  Walnut  intersects  Fourth  Street,  served  after- 
wards as  a  court-house  and  jail.  From  a  point  on  the  river 
bank,  near  the  Floating  Docks  already  mentioned,  through 
the  intersection  of  Broadway  and  Cherry  Street,  this  line  of 
stockade  swept  in  a  cemi-circular  line  along  the  brow  of  the 
hill  not  far  from  Cedar  and  Second  streets.  Fortunately, 
there  was  never  any  occasion  for  testing  the  strength  of  these 
fortifications. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  Spanish  rule,  there  seems  to 
have  been  few  incidents  which  were  thought  interesting  enough 
to  deserve  remembrance.  In  1785,  there  Mas  a  great  flood, 
equaled  only  by  its  successors  of  1844  and  1851,  which  del- 
uged the  American  Bottom,  and  which  gave  to  that  year  the 
name  of  ^'■L' Annee  des  Grandes  Eaux^'''  or  "  The  Year  of  the 
Great  "Waters."  In  1788,  the  arrival  of  a  fleet  of  ten  barofes 
from  New  Orleans,  at  one  time,  they  having  associated  and 
sailed  together  for  mutual  protection  against  a  gang  of  robbers, 
who  lurked  about  "  Grand  Tower,"  was  an  event  surprising 
enough  to  confer  on  that  year  the  distinction  of  the  ^^L'Annee 
des  Dix  Bateaux,''''  or  "  Year  of  the  Ten  Boats  ;"  1792  was 
the  epoch  of  the  honey-bee  ;  1799,  a  year  of  intense  cold,  the 
thermometer  having  sunk  thirty-two  degrees  below  zero,  was 
named  "X'vlnnee  du  Grand-hiver ^' '  or  "  Year  of  the  Hard 
Winter."  The  year  1798  being  distinguished  by  the  arrival 
of  some  galleys  with  Spanish  troops,  under  Don  Carlos  How- 
ard, was  afterward  known  as  "  X'^w??ee  des  Galeres^""  or 
"  Year  of  the  Galleys  ;"  and  1801,  bringing  with  it  the  calam- 
ity of  small-pox,  was  subsequently  referred  to  as  "  U  Annee  de 
la  Picotle,''  or  "  Year  of  Small-pox."  But  other  events  of  a 
different  character  were  now  casting  their  shadows  before. 

In  1800,  Spain,  by  the  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  retroceded 
Louisiana  to  France,  and  France,  by  Jefierson's  treatv,  April 
30,  1803,  transferred  it  to  the  United  States  ;  an  empire  cheaply 
bought  at  fifteen  millions  of  dollars.  In  October,  1803,  Con- 
gress having  passed  an  act  authorizing  the  President  to  take 
possession  of  the  Territory,  Upper  Louisiana  was  surrendered 
to  Amos  Stoddard,  a  captain  in  the  United  States  army, 
and  the  agent  of  the  United  States,  by  Don  Carlos  Dchault 


10  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

Delassus,  then  Spanish  Lieutenant-Governor,  on  the  10th 
day  of  JilarcL,  1804.  On  that  day,  the  keys  in  the  govern- 
ment house,  the  public  archives  and  property,  were  delivered 
over  to  the  representative  of  the  United  States  ;  the  ensign  of 
Spain  was  lowered,  and  the  flag  of  the  United  States  run  up 
in  its  place.  Salvos  of  artillery  saluted  the  stars  and  stripes 
as  they  were  flung  to  the  breeze,  and  the  act  of  transfer  was 
accomplished.  It  was  not  a  joyous  spectacle  to  most  of  those 
who  witnessed  it,  apprehensive  as  they  were  that  the  change 
of  government  would  disturb  the  easy  routine  so  agreeable  to 
their  nature  and  habits. 

By  act  of  Congress,  in  1804,  ail  Louisiana,  north  of  the 
thirty-third  parallel,  was  designated  as  the  "  District  of  Louis- 
iana." The  executive  power  of  the  government  established  in 
the  Territory  of  Indiana  was  extended  over  the  Territory  of 
Louisiana,  with  authority  in  the  Governor  and  Judges  of  that 
Territory  to  enact  laws  for  the  district.  General  William 
Henry  Harrison,  being  then  Governor  of  Indiana,  this  power 
was  exercised  by  him  and  his  associates.  The  next  year,  by 
another  act  of  Congress,  the  "  District  "  was  changed  to  the 
"Territory  of  Louisiana."  James  Wilkinson  became  the 
Governor,  and,  with  Ecturn  J.  Meigs  and  John  B.  C.  Lucas, 
Judges  of  the  Superior  Court,  constituted  the  Legislature  of 
the  Territory.  They  proceeded,  frfem  time  to  time,  to  pass 
such  laws  as  were  necessary  for  the  public  good.  This  sj'stem 
of  legislation  was  continued  for  several  years,  with  occasional 
changes  in  the  persons  constituting  the  Legislature.  In  1806, 
Joseph  Browne  was  Secretary  of  the  Territory  and  acting  Gov- 
ernor, and  J.  B.  C.  Lucas  and  Otho  Shrader  the  Judges.  In 
1807,  Frederick  Bates  was  Secretary  and  acting  Governor, 
and  the  same  judges  continued  in  office.  In  1808,  Meriwether 
Lewis  was  Governor  of  the  Territory,  and,  with  the  judges 
last  named,  contiimed  to  exercise  the  law-making  power  until 
1811. 

In  1812,  there  was  a  further  moditication,  the  change  now 
bemg  to  a  Governor  and  Legislative  Assembly,  the  upper 
branch  of  which,  consisting  of  nine  councillors,  was  to  be 
selected  out  of  twice  that  number,  who  were  to  be  nominated 
to  him  by  the  lower  branch.      At  the  same  time  the  Territory 


HISTORICAL.  11 

took  the  name  of  the  Missouri  Territory,  and  had  conceded  to 
it  the  right  of  being  represented  by  a  delegate  in  Congress. 
In  1816,  the  restraint  upon  the  choice  of  the  Council  Board 
was  removed,  and  the  members  made  elective  by  the  people. 
On  the  6th  of  March,  1820,  was  passed  the  act  of  Congress 
for  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  State  into  the  Union.  The 
terms  of  this  act  were  accepted  on  the  19th  of  July  following, 
by  the  people,  represented  at  Ht.  Louis  in  a  convention,  of 
which  David  Barton  was  President  and  William  G.  Pettus, 
Secretary.  The  first  Legislature  sat  in  1820,  at  St.  Louis, 
whence  the  seat  of  government  was  transferred  to  St.  Charles, 
where  it  remained  until  its  removal  to  the  city  of  Jefferson  in 
1826.  The  first  Governor  of  the  Missouri  Territory  was  Wil- 
liam Clark,  and  Edward  Hempstead  the  first  Delegate.  Alex- 
ander McNair  was  the  first  Governor  of  the  State  of  Missouri. 
When  St.  Louis  passed  into  American  hands,  a  line  of 
bluff  bank  extended  nearly  the  length  of  the  village,  overlook- 
ing the  river  from  the  height  of  twenty-five  feet.  At  a  little 
distance  west  of  this  line  was  a  gentle  rise,  and  still  beyond 
this,  at  about  the  bame  distance,  yet  another ;  the  first  of 
these  being  about  in  the  line  of  the  present  Third,  and  the 
last  in  the  line  of  Fourth  Street.  On  the  brow  and  eastern 
slope  of  the  first  rose  the  little  village,  m  a  rather  straggling 
fashion,  distributed  along  three  streets,  the  first  called  La  Rue 
Principale,  now  Main  Street ;  the  second  La  Rue  d  V Egli'iey 
where  stood  a  log  (Catholic)  church — now  Second  Street ;  the 
third,  La  Rue  des  Granges,  or  Barn  Street,  now  Third.  The 
vfhole  was  encircled  by  the  line  of  fortifications,  then,  how- 
ever, beginning  to  fall  into  ruins,  which  had  been  erected  by 
Cruzat.  Beyond,  south,  were  the  ''Commons;"  and  west, 
the  "  Common  Fields"  (the  last  agricultural  lands,  and  owned 
in  severalty,  though  having  a  common  enclosure.)  The  num- 
ber of  inhabitants  was  nine  hundred  and  twenty- five,  and  of 
houses  about  one  hundred  and  fifty,  the  most  of  them  log 
buildings,  interspersed  here  and  there  with  a  massive  stone 
chateau,  the  largest  of  which  was  on  the  square  which  then 
fronted  the  Old  Market,  and  being  the  jiroperty  of  a  ])ranch  of 
the  Chouteau  family,  passed  to  its  heirs.  On  this  square  was 
the  old  Spanish  Government-house.     The   church   on  Church 


12 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


OLD  CHOUTEAU  MANSION. 


Street  was  of  hewn  logs,  with  a  belfry,  surmounted  by  a  huge 
iron  cock,  which  served  the  purpose  of  a  weather  vane.  A 
plan  of  St.  Louis,  drawn  by  order  of  Laclede,  in  1764,  and  a 
plan  of  it  as  it  appeared  in  1780,  after  having  been  fortified  by 
Cruzat,  cer- 
tified by  Au- 
o;uste  Chou- 
t  e  a  u ,  the 
companion  of 
Laclede,  are 
now  in  exis- 
tence, being 
deposited,  we 
believe, in  the 
ofiice  of  the 
Recorder  of 
this  county. 

Mr.  Wil- 
liam Ivussell, 

a  native  of  Frederick  County,  Virginia,  came  to  this  city 
early  in  February,  1804,  when  the  Spanish  flag  was  flying 
at  the  Spanish  Government  Barracks  on  the  first  or  second 
square  south  of  the  Court-house.  Nearly  all  the  town  was 
then  south  of  Market  Street.  Mr.  Eusscll  came  out  from 
Virginia  on  horscljack ;  visited  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  and 
Vincennes,  and  at  the  latter  place  Avas  urged  by  Governor 
Harrison  to  remain  there.  He  reached  Kaskaskia  in  Novem- 
ber, 1803,  and  soon  came  up  to  Cahokia,  with  the  purpose 
of  crossing,  but,  owing  to  the  running  ice,  he  was  obliged  to 
spend  the  winter  in  Prairie  du  Rocher  and  Kaskaskia,  and  was 
not  able  to  cross  the  river  until  February  8,  1804,  when 
he  reached  St.  Louis,  and  gave  it  preference  as  his  residence  to 
any  of  the  town  sites  he  had  seen. 

Calvin  Adams  (an  American)  kept  the  ferry,  then  below 
Elm  Street,  and  the  only  American  tavern.  His  ferry  con- 
sisted of  two  pirogues  tied  together,  with  planks  laid  across 
the  top.  His  charge  for  bringing  over  man  and  horse  was  two 
dollars.  Adams  had  a  large  family,  and  it  is  possible  that 
some  of  his  children  are  still  living  in  this  city  or  vicinity. 


HISTORICAL.  13 

Comegys  &  Fortune  kept  store  on  Main  Street,  below 
Market.     This  was  the  only  American  store. 

William  Sullivan,  an  American  sergeant,  discharged  from 
Captain  Stoddard's  command,  opened  a  boarding-house,  or 
hotel,  on  the  hill  near  the  Barracks. 

The  principal  settlements  out  of  the  town  were  Americans. 
Bonhorame  was  almost  entirely  American. 

There  were  only  three  mills  in  the  count}^  propelled  by 
other  than  horse-power.  These  were  Chouteau's,  then  a  small 
mill,  on  Mill  Creek  ;  Bergoine  Sarpy's,  on  Riviere  des  Peres, 
and  Mr.  Long's  at  Bonhomme,  all  propelled  by  water-power. 

The  bold  rocky  shore,  perhaps  twenty  or  twenty-five  feet 
high,  prevented  landing  above  what  is  now  Pine  Street.  The 
landing  was  below. 

The  nearest  post-office  was  Cahokia,  where  a  one-horse  mail 
arrived  once  a  month  !  All  St.  Louis  had  to  go  to  Cahokia 
for  their  letters,  St.  Louis  being  then  a  small  town  near 
Cahokia ! 

The  fur  trade,  Avhich  had  been  the  chief  business  interest 
of  St.  Louis  before  the  change  of  government,  continued  to 
be  so  long  after.  The  French  voyageurs,  trappers  and  tra- 
ders in  pursuit  of  their  objects,  went  far  up  the  Missouri,  and 
traversed  the  region  west,  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In 
1802,  eTames  Pursley,  a  trapper,  crossed  the  plains  to  Santa 
Fe,  being  the  first  American  to  make  his  appearance  in  New 
Mexico.  In  early  times,  the  currency  was  jjeUry-honds,  bills 
payable  in  peltries.  In  1808,  the  Missouri  Fur  Company  was 
formed  by  Pierre  Chouteau,  Manuel  Lisa,  William  Chirk,  Syl- 
vester Labadie,  and  others.  To  these  succeeded  other  enter- 
prises of  a  like  character,  in  which  the  names  of  the  Chou- 
teaus.  Gen.  William  H.  Ashley,  Astor,  Sublette,  Robert 
Campbell,  Pratte,  Cabanne,  Bent,  etc. ,  are  conspicuous.  Gen. 
Ashley,  encountering  great  perils  and  hardships,  visited  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  there  discovered  the  since  celebrated 
South  Pass.  In  1824,  the  same  intrepid  explorer  penetrated 
to  the  Salt  Lake,  and  gave  his  name  to  another  lake  not  far 
from  it,  near  which  he  erected  a  fort.  The  statistics  of  these 
early  times  show,  that  for  fifteen  successive  years,  ending  in 
1804,  the  annual  value  of  the  furs  collected  here  amounted  to 


14 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


$203,750.  The  number  of  deer  skins  was  158,000  ;  of  beaver, 
3,900  pounds  ;  otter,  8,000  ;  5,100  bear,  and  850  buffalo.  The 
fur  trade,  though  still  valuable,  was,  however,  destined  to  lose 
its  relative  importance  in  common  with  everything  else  which 
gave  peculiar  character  to  the  St.  Louis  of  early  days. 
'^  In 


there 
only 


1804, 
were 
t  w  o 


American 
families  HI  St. 
Louis,  but  af- 
ter that  pe- 
riod the  num- 
ber increased 
with  consid- 
rable  rapidi- 
ty. These 
brought  with 
them  the  en- 

OLD    GREEN   TEEE    HOUSE,    BUILT  180L  tcrpHse,  hab- 

its and  tastes  of  the  Anglo-American,  and  began  to  produce  the 
well-known  results  of  such  an  emigration.  That  emigration 
was  checked  by  the  alarms  of  invasion,  during  the  war  with 
Great  Britain  of  1812.  Some  three  thousand  Indians,  instiga- 
ted by  the  British,  descended  upon  St.  Charles  County,  then 
comprising  Northern  Missouri,  and  committed  many  ravages 
amono-  the  scattered  and  feeble  settlements  of  that  region. 
St.  Louis,  however,  escaped,  having  never,  since  the  time  of 
De  Leyba,  been  approached  by  a  force  in  hostile  array.  The 
end  of  the  war  gave  a  new  impulse  to  emigration,  which  AV'as 
still  further  strengthened  by  that  great  discovery,  which  has 
done  so  much  to  change  the  face  of  this  continent. 

In  1817,  there  arrived  at  St.  Louis  the  first  steamboat 
which  ever  made  trial  of  its  powers  against  the  current  of  the 
Mississippi. 

The  "  General  Pike,"  a  boat  built  in  Pittsburg,  and  pro- 
pelled by  an  engine  of  low  pressure,  reached  St.  Louis  on  the 
2d  day  of  August,  1817,  her  commander  being  Captain  Jacob 
Reed.     She  landed  near  the  foot  of  Market  Street.     To  most, 


HISTORICAL.  15 

if  not  all  of  the  inhabitants,  she  presented  a  strange  spectacle, 
and  was  gazed  on  with  wonder.  Some  Indians,  then  in  the 
town,  who  had  gone  near  the  river  bank,  alarmed  at  the  sijrlit 
of  the  monster,  were  seen  gradually  to  recede  as  the  bout 
approached,  until  they  had  reached  the  brow  of  the  second 
hill,  whence  no  inducements  could  prevail  upon  them  to  move 
in  the  direction  of  the  suspicious  visitor.  Two  years  after,  on 
the  19th  of  May,  1819,  the  "  Independence,"  Captain  Nelson, 
had  stemmed  the  tide  of  the  Missouri  River  as  far  as  "  Old 
Franklin,"  after  a  passage  of  seven  running  days.  The  set- 
tlers on  that  river  were  in  ecstacies  at  this  demonstration 
that  even  the  turbulent  Missouri  was  no  match  for  steam,  a 
point  which  had  for  some  time  been  debated.  The  2d  of  June, 
1819,  witnessed  the  first  steamboat  arrival  from  New  Orleans, 
the  passage  having  been  made  by  Captain  Armitage,  of  the 
*'  Harriet,"  in  twenty-seven  days. 

The  population  of  St.  Louis  was,  in  1810,  1,400;  m  1815, 
2,000;  and  in  1820,  4,598.  November  9,  1809,  is  the  date 
of  her  incorporation  as  a  town;  December  9,  1822,  that  of 
her  incorporation  as  a  city,  under  the  government  of  a  Mayor 
and  Board  of  Aldermen,  since  expanded  into  a  "  City  Council" 
of  Aldermen  and  Delegates. 

The  town  of  St.  Louis  had  its  first  charter  November  9» 
1809,  from  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  District  of  St. 
Louis,  proceeding  under  authority  of  an  act  of  the  Legislature. 
It  was  bounded  by  a  line  beginning  on  the  river  at  "  Roy's 
Tower,"  already  mentioned  as  one  of  the  forts  at  the  com- 
mencement (north)  of  the  old  line  of  fortifications.  Thence 
the  line  ran  west  "  sixty  arpens,"  and  thence  so  as  to  include 
the  "  St.  Louis  Common  Fields  "  and  "  Common,"  through 
the  point  known,  from  its  shape,  as  the  "  Sugar  Loaf,"  to  the 
river  again.  The  lines  were,  however  run  in  this  way  with 
some  reference  to  the  "  Old  Spanish  town,"  by  which  was 
meant  the  town  proper  and  all  its  dependencies. 

The  act  incorporating  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  which  was 
passed  December  9,  1822,  narrowed  these  limits.  The  line 
commenced  at  about  the  middle  of  Mill  Creek,  just  l^elow  the 
Gas  Works,  and  run  thence  west  to  Seventh  Street,  and  up 
Seventh  to  a  point  due  west  of  "  Roy's  Tower,"  and  thence  to 


IQ  TOUR    OF       ST.    LOUIS. 

the  river.     The  area  enclosed  in  these  lines  was  only  three 
hnndred  and  eighty-live  acres. 

In  1840,  a  v'ery  large  population  having  grown  up  outside 
the  city  limits,  the  bounds  of  the  corporation  were,  by  the  act 
of  February  15,  1841,  extended  so  as  to  begin  in  the  river  east 
of  the  southeastern  corner  of  the  suburb  of  St.  George,  thence 
due  west  to  Second  Carondelet  Avenue  ;  thence  north  to  Chou- 
teau Avenue  ;  thence  in  a  direct  line  to  the  mouth  of  Stony 
Creek,  and  thence  east  to  the  river,  embracing  an  area  of 
two  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty  acres. 

In  1817  was  chartered  the  Bank  of  Missouri,  and  in  1821 
sundry  loan  offices. 

In  1825  the  first  Episcopal  Church  was  erected  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Third  and  Chestnut  streets,  which  afterwards  went  into 
the  hands  of  the  Baptists,  and  disappeared  long  ago.  In 
1824  the  first  Presbyterian  Church  was  built  at  the  corner 
of  Fourth  and  St.  Charles  streets.  That  also  has  disappeared 
before  the  march  of  modern  improvement,  and  its  site  is  now 
occupied  bv  a  block  of  elegant  stores.  The  old  Court-house, 
a  large  brick  building,  was  built  in  1827,  but  that,  too,  has 
Ions  since  given  place  to  a  superb  and  spacious  structure  of 
stone.  In  the  same  year  were  erected  the  old  market  build- 
ings, which  also  have  made  way  for  a  massive  block  of  ware- 
houses. In  1818  the  first  paving  with  stone  on  edge  was  done 
by  William  Deckers,  on  Market,  between  Main  and  the  Levee. 
The  first  brick  pavement  was  laid  on  Second  Street  in  1821. 

The  year  1818  was  one  of  great  prosperity,  St.  Louis 
sharing  to  some  extent  in  the  mania  for  trade  and  speculation, 
which  marked  that  period,  and  which  before  1821  resulted  in 
severe  revulsions  and  a  depression  extending  throughout  the 
country  for  several  years,  to  a  degree  beyond  anything  that 
has  been  witnessed  since.  The  consequences  were  such  that 
the  population  increased  only  six  hundred  in  the  eight  years 
from  1820  to  1828.  Since  her  recovery  from  that  depression, 
no  calamity  seems  to  have  had  any  power  of  working  serious 
injury  to  her.  The  commercial  disasters  of  1837 — the  great 
fire  in  May,  1849,  which  destroyed  millions  in  a  single  night ; 
and  the  visitations  of  pestilence  the  same  year,  did  not,  appa- 
rently, oppose  the  slightest  obstacle  to  her  onward  march. 


HISTORICAL. 


17 


The  proirrcss  of  St.  Louis,  like  the  Athens  of  Thcmistocles, 
"from  ;i  little  town  to  a  great  city,"  Avas  suitably  commemo- 
rated on  the  eiirhtv-thirtl  anniversary  of  its  foundation,  Febru- 
ary  15,  1847.  Fortunately  there  was  then  among  the  living 
one  who  had  accompanied  Laclede  on  his  first  memorable 
expedition  up  the.  Mississippi,  and  who  may  be  said  to  have 
witnessed  the  foundation  of  the  city — the  highly  respected 
and  venerable  Pierre  Chouteau.  Although  then  at  a  greatly 
advanced  age,  he  was  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  faculties, 
and  could  keenly  appreciate  the  marvelous  contrast  between 
the  St.  Louis  of  17G4  and  the  St.  Louis  of  1847.  Since  then 
(in  1849)  this  last  surviving  companion  of  Laclede  has  disap- 
peared from  the  scene  of  life,  and  with  him  all  living  memory 
of  the  great  event  at  which  he  had  assisted.  His  elder  brother, 
A  u  g  II  s  t  e 
Chouteau, 
had  long 
preceded 
him,  having 
died  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1829. 
His  dcatl 
t6ok  place 
iij,  this  city 
(at  the 
Ch  outeau 
]M  a  n  s  i  o  n 
House,  on 
Main  street, 

near  Walnut),  and  not  in  Arkansas,  as  some  printed  accomits, 
which  have  confounded  Auguste  Chouteau  with  his  nephew, 
of  the  same  name,  hate  incorrectly  stated. 

In  1833  St.  Louis  had  a  population  not  much  exceeding 
6,000,  and  taxable  property  valued  at  only  $2,000,000.  The 
whole  tax  of  that  year  on  personal  and  real  property  Avas  only 
$2,745.84,  being  scarcely  a  tithe  of  the  sum  now  paid  in 
several  instances  by  single  individual  citizens. 

There  had  been  built  by  the  Frencli  a  lew  storehouses, 
nearly  all  of  which  have  disappeared,  and  1814  had  witnessed 


GOVEUNOll  McNAIU'S  MANSION. 


18  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  erection  of  the  first  brick  house,  though  fifteen  j^ears  after, 
the  number  of  such  buildings  was  very  small.  Now,  it  is 
needless  to  say,  that  there  are  thousands  of  public  and  private 
edifices  of  brick  and  marble,  many  of  which  are  distinguished 
for  their  magnitude  and  splendor ;  long  lines  of  spacious  and 
solid  warehouses  ;  elegant  and  commodious  dwellings  ;  church 
edifices,  presenting  great  variety  of  architecture. 

In  1851  was  incorporated  an  Institution  for  the  Blind, 
which  w^ent  into  operation  the  same  year.  Supported  by 
liberal  contributions  from  benevolent  gentlemen  of  our  city, 
aided  l)y  an  appropriation  from  the  State  treasury,  and  judi- 
ciously managed,  it  has  fully  realii-ed  the  expectations  of  its 
founders  and  friends. 

In  their  care  for  the  living,  our  citizens  have  not  been 
unmindful  of  the  respect  due  to  the  dead.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  city  are  many  cemeteries.  Of  these  the  "  Belle- 
fontaine"  owes  its  origin  to  an  association  of  gentlemen,  wdio 
obtanied  an  act  of  incorporation  in  1849,  and  commenced  the 
improvement  of  their  grounds  in  the  same  year.  The  first 
sale  of  lots  took  place  in  1850.  The  whole  quantity  of  land 
purchased  by  this  association  was  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
one  acres,  all  of  which  have  been  enclosed.  The  "Calvary 
Cemetery,"  the  ground  for  which  w^as  purchased  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  the  St.  Louis  Diocese  in  1852,  contains  at  present 
130  acres,  l)eing  part  of  a  larger  tract  of  320  acres,  100  of  which 
have  been  laid  out  and  improved.  The  sites  of  both  these 
burial  grounds,  which  are  sequestered  spots,  richly  wooded 
and  beautifully  diversified,  suit  well  the  sacred  uses  to  which 
they  have  been  consecrated. 

A  company  for  supplying  the  city  with  gas  light,  which 
was  incorporated  in  1841,  commenced  operations  in  1847. 
The  first  lighting  w^ith  gas  was  on  the  night  of  the  4th  of 
November,  1847.  Gas  is  now  supplied  to  street  and  public 
lamps,  and  has  been  extensively  introduced  into  shops,  manu- 
factories and  dwelliuirs. 

The  financial  crash  of  1857,  which  caused  the  failure  of 
some  of  the  most  enterprising  individuals  and  firms  of  the 
city,  only  temporarily  arrested  its  progress.  When  the  war 
was  commenced  in  1861,  the  city  had  entirely  recovered.    The 


HISTORICAL.  19 

political  convulsions  which  followed  the  election  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln to  the  presidency  bore  heavily  upon  St.  Lonis.  Situated 
on  the  border,  in  the  midst  of  a  population  divided  in  senti- 
ment, it  could  not  have  been  otherwise  than  disastrous  to  her 
commercial  prospects. 

The  close  of  the  war  brought  prosperity  again  to  the 
metropolis.  Enterprises  which  surpassed  in  magnitude  the 
undertakings  of  any  former  period  were  enilmrked  in  with 
alacrity  and  zeal.  Soon  after  the  war  Captain  Eads  made 
public  his  plans  for  bridging  the  Mississippi  Kiver  opposite 
the  city.  That  work  was  undertaken  and  successfully  com- 
pleted, and  the  great  highway  was  formally  opened  for  traffic 
and  travel  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1874.  Meanwhile  new  lines 
of  railways  were  built,  and  existing  roads  extended  to  distant 
points  in  every  direction. 

The  city  itself  was  going  through  the  process  of  recon- 
struction. Old  landmarks  giving  way  before  the  march  of 
improvement,  and  their  places  being  taken  by  magnificent 
palaces  of  stone  and  iron. 

The  completion  of  the  bridge  and  the  tunnel  opened  the 
way  for  the  concentration  of  the  railway  termini  at  the,  great 
Union  Depot,  into  which  trains  from  sixteen  distinct  lines  of 
railway  enter,  afford  facilities  for  the  transaction  of  business 
not  enjoyed  by  any  other  commercial  entrepot  in  the  world. 
Great  waterworks  have  been  erected  ;  stately  public  buildings 
have  been  reared  and  are  now  (1878)  in  course  of  erection, 
which  will,  when  completed,  add  to  the  grandeur  of  the  city. 

What  wonderful  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  short 
space  of  seventy-four  years  !  St.  Louis,  then  a  village  of  a 
few  hundred  inhabitants,  and  now  a  great  city  of  nearly  six 
hundred  thousand  souls  !  Only  a  few  years  ago — in  the  life- 
time of  a  citizen,  over  whose  grave  the  grass  has  scarcely  had 
time  to  o-row — the  wild  deer  roamed  over  the  wilderness  and 
slaked  his  thirst  in  pools  where  now  the  grandest  achievements 
of  the  architect's  skill  rise  proudly  above  the  places  which 
they  then  covered.  Little  more  than  half  a  century  ago  the 
late  James  H.  Lucas  shot  a  deer  on  the  margin  of  a  pool 
which  then  occupied  a  portion  of  the  site  of  the  new  Custom- 
house and  Post-office.     Now  for  miles  and  miles,  north  and 


20  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

south  and  west  of  that  spot,  the  long  lines  of  houses  en- 
close the  streets. 

Meanwhile  numerous  improved  communications  with  the 
country  adjoining  St.  Louis  have  been  opened.  Macadamized 
roads  furnish  easy  access  to  different  parts  of  the  country,  and 
the  neighhorliood  of  the  city,  abounding  as  it  does  in  spots 
remarkable  for  their  rare  natural  beauty,  and  affording  charm- 
ino-  sites  for  rural  residences,  is  being  fast  embellished  with 
cottages,  villus  and  ornamented  pleasure  grounds,  the  evi- 
dences of  wealth,  luxury  and  taste. 

We  have  thus  hastily  sketched  some  of  the  incidents  in  the 
history  of  St.  Louis,  and  briefly  referred  to  facts  illustrative 
other  past  progress  and  present  condition.  .A  more  particular 
enumeration  would  have  been  without  the  scope  of  this  article, 
besides  extending  it  bqyond  the  limits  to  which  it  Avas  neces- 
sarily assigned.  Our  own  citizens  hardly  need  such  remem- 
brances or  references  as  these  to  impress  them  with  a  confi- 
dence in  the  onward  and  upward  progress  of  a  city  of  which 
they  so  well  know  they  have  reason  to  be  proud.  Strangers, 
however — such  as  know  St.  Louis  hardly  more  than  byname — 
whose  faces  are  set  westwardly  with  a  view  to  the  establish- 
ment, in  this  fruitful  region,  of  their  business  and  homes,  may 
be  sufficiently  interested,  even  l)y  the  imperfect  report  made 
by  us,  to  stimulate  further  inquiry  on  their  part.  Such  an 
inquir}^  will  disclose  a  thousand  additional  facts  to  strengthen 
the  conviction  that  St.  Louis  has  a  rightful  claim  to  the  pre- 
eminence which  her  friends  assign  to  her.  What  forbids  the 
realization  of  their  most  enthusiastic  predictions  as  to  its 
future  growth  and  greatness  ? 

Here  stands  a  city  enjoying  far  beyond  any  other  city  of 
the  same  magnitude  or  pretensions,  the  advantages  of  that 
inland  navigation,  compared  with  which  even  our  vast  foreign 
commerce  is  sinking  into  insignificance.  It  has  five  thousand 
miles  of  that  navigation  belonging  peculiarly  to  its  own  waters, 
with  ten  thousand  miles  of  coast,  yielding  up  the  products  of 
an  immense  and  fertile  region,  for  which  it  furnishes  a  thou- 
sand outlets.  To  these  may  be  added  the  forty  thousand 
miles  more  of  navigalile  rivers,  which  connect  with  St.  Louis. 
Her  vast  means  of  communication  comprise  sixteen  railroads 


HISTORICAL.  21 

havino;  their  termini  in  the  city,  and  connected  with  a  net-work 
of  siniihir  roads  stretching  to  everj  point  of  the  Union  ;  in 
one  direction  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  in  another  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Mississippi,  and  in  a  third  to  Labrador,  in  the 
far  East,  and  to  San  Francisco  in  the  far  West,  Through 
her  gates  will  pour  the  commerce  of  the  Pacific,  of  India,  and 
of  the  isles  of  the  ocean  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  commerce 
of  the  Atlantic  and  of  Europe  on  the  other.  Stripping  from 
her  all  which  may  be  considered  as  accidental  or  adventitious — 
all  of  which  jealous  and  more  fortunate  rivals  may  by  possi- 
bility deprive  her — still  she  is  left  the  commercial  center,  the 
natural  mart  of  seven  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  terri- 
tory, full  of  mineral  and  agricultural  resources,  and  capable 
of  sustaining  in  vigorous  life  a  population  of  a  hundred 
miUions.  What  bounds,  then,  shall  be  assigned  to  the  growth 
of  St.  Louis,  wdien  all  the  capacities  of  that  country  whose 
trade  can  in  no  event  be  diverted  from  her,  shall  have  been 
fully  developed  ?  When,  in  addition  to  the  surplus  products 
of  that  territory  of  wiiich  she  must  be  the  entrepot,  she  shall 
become,  as  she  may,  the  great  distributing  agent  for  the  West 
and  for  the  East — in  a  word,  the  commercial  emporium  of 
the  United  States — what  shall  forbid  an  accumulation  here 
of  inhabitants  beyond  anything  of  which  we  have  authentic 
records?  Millions  upon  millions,  until  there  shall  have  sprung 
up  here  a  city  containing  hundreds  of  square  miles,  with  an 
area  even  then  affordinsr  but  reasonable  accommodations  for 
the  vast  multitudes  collected  within  it.  Of  course,  such 
visions  relate  to  the  future ;  but  that  future,  amidst  the 
growth  of  such  a  nation  as  ours,  can  not  be  long  postponed. 
Meanwhile  the  present  generation  will  witness  a  progress  with 
which  it  may  w^ell  be  content.  That  progress,  it  is  true,  will 
depend  much  upon  the  enterprise  and  energies  of  our  citizens. 
For  we  fully  rely  on  it,  that  its  citizens  will  be  true  to  their 
city  and  themselves  :  alike  the  vast  population  now  here,  and 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  still  to  come  hither.  That  may 
be  no  idle  dream  which  conceives  for  St.  Louis  the  most  ex- 
alted destiny  ;  which,  with  a  just  prophetic  forecast,  transforms 
the  humble  hamlet  of  Laclede  into  the  future  metropolis  of 
the  New  World. 


COMMERCE  OF  ST.  LOUIS. 


ITS  INCEPTION,  PROGRESS,  AND  IMPORTANCE. 

While  St.  Louis  is  in  many  respects  a  cosmopolitan  city, 
her  people  are  none  the  less  samples  of  that  push,  vigor,  and 
enterprise  characteristic  of  America.  From  an  infant  in  swad- 
dlino-  clothes  made  from  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  she  has 
developed  into  a  stately  queen,  clad  in  the  sumptuous  ermine 
of  wealth  and  power  ;  her  realm  constantly  extending  and  her 
valor  and  glory  spreading  out  upon  the  high  seas  like  brave 
Carthagena  in  the  glad  years  of  her  maritime  supremacy. 

The  journey  back,  over  the  path  of  St.  Louis  commerce, 
to  the  fountain  source  of  her  earliest  experience,  to  the  nursery 
wherein  her  primitive  enterprises  were  cradled,  is  not  a  long 
one,  and  may  be  made  by  the  retrospective  memory  of  several 
living  citizens.  The  history  of  the  city,  from  the  landing  of 
Laclede,  has  already  been  detailed  summarily,  and  now  it  is 
important  to,  at  least,  epitomize  the  records  of  her  commerce, 
and,  from  the  evolution  of  events  which  have  made  St.  Louis 
great  as  she  is,  deduce  our  inferences  of  \vhat  she  will  ulti- 
mately ])ecome — the  part  she  will  play  in  the  future  drama  of 
nations. 

The  commerce  of  the  city  had  its  birth  in  the  special  grant 
of  the  fur  trade  of  the  Northwest  to  Laclede  in  1765  ;  but  it 
is. estimated  that  up  to  1812  the  total  trade  of  St.  Louis  was 
but  little,  if  any,  above  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  an- 
nually. The  business  of  the  city  was  confined  almost  exclu- 
sively to  furs,  being  an  exchange  of  trinkets,  whisky,  blankets, 
etc.,  for  peltries  of  wolves,  foxes,  bear,  elk,  coons,  beaver, 
minks,  and  other  animals,  found  in  the  West  and  Northwest. 
When  the  St.  Louis  fur  merchant  had  a  sufficient  stock  on 
hand  to  justify  a  shipment,  he  loaded  his  flat-boat  and  followed 

[22] 


COMMERCK.  23 

the  current  with  his  goods  to  New  Orleans.  The  river  at  that 
early  date  was  infested  withhold  pirates,  who  did  not  hesitate 
to  add  murder  to  their  depredations,  and  were  such  a  terror 
as  to  seriously  interfere  with  exportations  for  many  years. 
The  stories  told  of  John  A.  Murrell  and  his  blood-thirsty 
gang  on  the  Ohio  River,  may  not  be  true,  but  their  desperate 
exploits  were  no  more  horrifying  than  the  acts  committed  by 
the  Grand  Tower  and  Cottonwood  Creek  o;ano:s,  whose  mur- 
ders  may  be  counted  by  hundreds. 

It  was  the  establishment  of  a  trading  post,  where  St.  Louis 
now  stands,  that  created  the  Western  character  known  as  the 
"  scouts."  Before  that  time  there  was  no  need  for  o;uides  or 
adventurers,  because  nothing  could  be  gained  by  a  penetration 
of  the  Western  wilds  ;  but  when  a  trade  with  the  Indians  be- 
came a  possibility,  brave,  reckless  scouts,  or  couriers  des  hois 
became  indispensable,  and  their  services  were  well  repaid. 
Occasional  troubles  would  break  out  among  the  Indians  and 
white  traders  on  account  of  the  abduction  of  some  beautiful 
savage  maid  by  the  bold  adventurers,  and  nine-tenths  of  the 
battles  fought  about  St.  Louis  were  undoubtedly  precipitated 
or  brousrht  about  throu2:h  that  cause. 

It  may  appear  strange,  but  it  is  the  truth  nevertheless,  that 
as  late  as  1812,  the  currency  of  St.  Louis  and  the  Northwest 
was  confined  almost  exclusively  to  whisky,  peltries,  trinkets, 
home-made  sugar,  beeswax,  and  blankets.  By  reference  to 
the  files  of  the  Missouri  Gazette,  it  will  be  seen  from  the  ad- 
vertisements that  a  paper  or  coin  currency  was  little  thought 
of  in  effecting  the  various  exchanges  of  private  property.  A 
few  3^ears  later  negroes  became  the  standard  of  values,  and, 
in  fact,  the  principal  part  of  the  city's  trade. 

The  arrival  of  the  first  steamboat  at  St.  Louis  in  1817,  may 
be  fixed  upon  as  the  beginning  of  the  commercial  life  of  St. 
Louis.  Before  this,  the  primitive  processes  applied  to  navi- 
gation were  such  as  to  be  undeserving  of  the  title  "  trade," 
but  was  like  bartering  jack-knives  or  trading  marbles — utterly 
insignificant.  But  the  steamboat  imparted  a  new  life  into  the 
puerile  transactions  of  the  municipal  pioneers,  and  became  of 
such  importance  that,  in  1820,  the  trade  of  St.  Louis  had  risen 
to  two  and  one-half  millions  of  dollars  for  that  year,  and  the 


24  TOUR    OF       ST.    LOUIS. 

future  progress  of  the  city  was  almost  marvelous.  Steam- 
boats multiplied  until  they  swarmed  the  channel  of  the  Missis- 
sippi almost  like  ants  in  their  labyrinthian  cities,  and  in  1849, 
when  the  Aro-onauts  were  swarming  into  California  from  the 
East,  the  river  would,  at  times,  be  almost  choked  with  loaded 
steamers,  the  outer  boats  being  often  compelled  to  roll  their 
freight  over  twenty  diHerent  steamers  in  order  to  get  it  ashore. 
Those  were  days  of  eminent  activity  when  the  importation  of 
eroods  into  St.  Louis  reached  two  billions  of  dollars. 

Up  to  this  time  St.  Louis  had  no  railroad  ;  but  in  1851 
steps  wer(>  taken  which  shortly  afterwards  resulted  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  short  branch  of  the  Pi'citic  Railroad.  This  short 
road,  though  of  little  importance,  excited  the  people,  and  new 
roads  were  projected  and  speedily  built.  Every  person  wanted 
more  railroads,  until  in  1857,  when  Page  &  Bacon,  the  great 
bankers,  precipitated  a  financial  panic  by  breaking  in  their 
efforts  to  build  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Eailroad.  This  put  an 
end,  temporarih',  to  the  construction  of  roads,  and  the  war 
breaking  out  shortly  thereafter,  St.  Louis  passed  under  the 
ban  of  stagnation,  and  perceptibly  declined  in  nearly  every 
branch.  But  when  the  shadow  of  war  Mas  uplifted  she  sprang 
up  again  as  though  her  sleep  had  brought  back  into  her  slug- 
gish veins  the  fresh,  vigorous  blood  of  impetuous  youth,  and 
forthwith  the  progress  of  St.  Louis  became  a  by-word  in  the 
mouth  of  every  American. 

It  has  been  since  the  war  that  nearly  all  of  her  great  com- 
mercial institutions  have  been  erected,  and  her  progress  has 
been  indeed  so  remarkable  that  now  her  population  is  nearly 
six  hundred  thousand  souls,  the  fourth  city  on  the  continent, 
she  is  the  third  in  manufacturing  industries.  Among  the 
greater  works  of  St.  Louis  capital  and  brains  are  the  con- 
struction of  the  great  bridge,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the 
jetties,  and  net-work  of  railroads  which  reach  out  in  ever}^ 
direction,  grasping  the  trade  of  an  empire.  But  while  these 
works  are  grand  and  all-important,  they  are  no  more  conse- 
quential than  other  enterprises  now  projected,  and  will  be  suc- 
cessfully completed  wiihin  the  next  three  or  four  years. 
Among  these  new  projects  may  be  mentioned  the  tunnel  under 
Poplar    Street,    connecting   the    Union   Depot   with    a   great 


COMMERCE.  25 

warehouse  system  on  the  Levee,  which,  operating  in  conjunction 
with  incline  planes  to  the  river,  will  load  and  unload  barges 
with  the  facility  of  a  dumping  cart.  Another  conception  of 
still  greater  importance  is  Mr.  Charles  Chouteau's  line  of  iron 
barges.  This  enterprise  is  the  joint  project  of  Mr.  Chouteau 
and  Com.  George  H.  Kea,  the  President  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  Transportation  Company,  and  one  of  the  ])est  and  most 
acute  business  men  in  the  country.  Both  of  these  aeutlcmen 
are  now  (July,  1878)  in  Europe  perfecting  arrangements,  and 
on  their  return  purpose  the  construction  of  steam  iron  barges, 
by  which  grain  may  be  shipped  profitably  from  St.  Louis  to 
New  Orleans  at  three  cents  per  bushel.  In  addition  to  these 
vast  enterprises  there  are  private  interests  of  great  importance 
under  way,  such  as  the  rebuilding  of  the  Southern  Hotel  and 
the  construction  of  the  finest  opera-house  in  America. 

•  It  has  been  since  the  war  that  St.  Louis  has  arisen  to  the 
position  of  a  cotton  market ;  and  since  the  establishment  of  a 
cotton  exchange  she  has  become  a  stalwart  rival  of  New  Or- 
leans and  jNIemphis  for  the  cotton  product  of  the  South  and 
Southwest.  To  illustrate  the  rapid  increase  of  this  trade*,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  present  the  following  figures  :  For  the 
j'ear  1S67  the  receipts  of  cotton  Avere  19,838  bales,  and  every 
succeeding  year  shows  a  remarkable  increase,  until  for  the 
year  1877  the  receipts  reached  217,734  bales.  St.  Louis  now 
has  the  largest  cotton  compress  warehouse  in  the  world,  and 
her  future,  predicated  upon  the  growth  of  receipts,  is  pregnant 
with  the  jiromise  of  being  the  greatest  cotton  market  on  the 
continent  within  the  next  ten  years. 

In  the  live  stock  and  packing  business  St.  Louis  is  fast 
distancing  all  other  cities,  and  the  investment  during  the  past 
few  years  in  stock-yards  and  packing-houses  evidence  the  be- 
lief, on  the  part  of  those  directly  interested  in  the  trade,  that 
it  is  but  a  question  of  a  short  time  when  our  city  will  be  the 
focal  point  of  the  live  stock  interests  of  the  United  States. 

In  this  brief  allusion  to  the  commerce  of  St.  Louis,  no 
reference  has  been  made  to  the  dry  goods,  groceries,  iron, 
coal,  and  a  hundred  other  branches  of  trade,  for  the  reason 
that  the  most  of  this  information  is  given  in  the  historical 
notices  of  our  representative  manufactories  and  business  houses. 


26  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Statistics  have  been  avoided  because  they  are  rarely  read,  and 
if  used  would  fill  up  space  to  the  exclusion  of  more  interesting 
matter,  and  that,  too,  without  subserving  any  particular  pur- 
pose. What  St.  Louis  is  as  a  commercial  city  may  be  best 
ascertained  by  a  perusal  of  that  department  of  this  book  deal- 
ino-  exclusively  with  our  commercial  institutions  ;  but  what  she 
is  destined  to  be  is  such  an  important  matter  for  reflection  that 
it  has  been  deemed  necessary  to  devote  a  special  chapter  to 
prophecv,  in  which  every  claim  is  based  upon  a  logical  deduc- 
tion of  facts  and  past  events  having  special  reference  to  St. 
Louis  of  the  future. 


ST.  LOUIS, 

The  Future  Commercial  Entrepot  of  the  World. 


Let  us  light  the  lamps  of  prophecy,  and  by  their  pene- 
trating rays  examine  our  surroundings,  the  causes  of  our  rapid 
development,  the  operations  by  which  St.  Louis  is  impilled  to 
her  destiny.  We  have  a  country  covering  an  area  of  three 
million  square  miles — enough  to  make  twenty-five  kingdoms 
as  large  as  Great  Britain,  and  possessing  all  the  mineral,  agri- 
cultural and  commercial  facilities  to  make  a  country  great  and 
prosperous.  In  extent  of  coast,  whether  of  sea,  lake  or  gulf, 
in  number  and  value  of  harbors,  and  in  the  means  of  inland 
navigation,  whether  of  sound,  lake  or  river,  there  is  no 
country  so  blessed  as  ours. 

Our  sea  coast,  lake  and  river  navigation  is  over  33,000 
miles.  The  various  rivers  and  bayous  of  the  Mississi[)pi  alone 
furnish  over  16,500  miles  of  steam  navigation.  We  have  this 
immense  area  of  rich  and  varied  soil,  from  which  we  take  in 
abundance  nearly  all  the  most  valued  productions  known  to 
agriculture,  and  to  such  a  vast  extent  is  our  virgin  soil  yet 
undeveloped,  that  we  could  sustain  a  population  of  750,000,000 
of  people,  and  be  no  more  thickly  populated  than  Great 
Britain  is  at  the  present  moment.     In  mines  and  placers  of 


COMMERCIAL    ENTREPOT  OF  THE  WORLD.  27 

gold,  only  one  nation  can  compete  with  us  ;  of  silver,  copper, 
lead,  zinc,  we  have  larger  supplies  ;  while  iron,  more  valuable 
than  all  the  rest,  is  wideh^  difl'used  and  inexhaustible  in 
quantity. 

The  quality  of  our  iron  is  not  surpassed  by  any  on  the 
globe.  As  one  item  in  iron  we  would  mention  the  "Iron  INIoun- 
tain  "  in  Missouri,  that  rises  in  majesty  above  the  surrounding 
country,  as  if  inviting  the  attention  of  capital.  This  mountain 
of  iron  is  computed  to  contain  enough  to  supply  the  markets 
of  the  world  for  a  thousand  years. 

This  language  applies  in  a  general  way  to  the  United 
States,  but  let  us  consider  for  a  moment  what  advantages  St. 
Louis  possesses.  Her  geographical  position  is  a  peculiarly 
central  one,  being  located  above  the  miasmatic  vapors  of  the 
valley,  and  yet  at  the  foot  of  the  water-shed  of  the  Northwest, 
giving  her  a  more  healthful  location  than  any  other  city  in  the 
world.  For  many  years  St.  Louis  hung  upon  the  outskirts  of 
civilization,  but  the  ever-advancing  forces  of  Western  develop- 
ment and  pioneer  progress  soon  enlarged  the  boundaries  of 
enterprise,  and  now,  one  hundred  years  after  the  first  camp- 
fire  lit  up  the  wilderness  and  threw  its  genial  rays  over  the 
St.  Louis  trading  post,  not  only  a  great  and  mighty  city  has 
sprung  up  from  the  ashes,  but  the  periphery  of  her  influence 
has  overspread  the  territory  lying  between  the  Mississippi  and 
the  Pacific,  and  she  even  now  sits  the  queen  of  a  new  empire, 
rich  in  her  possessions  but  mightier  in  her  possibilities. 

St.  Louis  is  the  one,  and  from  force  of  circumstances  can 
be  the  only  great  city  of  the  Mississippi  Valley ;  she  must  of 
necessity  be  the  distributing  point  of  the  mineral  and  cereal 
products  of  the  great  West.  Missouri,  with  her  Iron  Mountain , 
iathe  iron  State  ;  herunequaled  lead  mines,  from  which  nearly 
one-third  of  all  the  lead  used  in  this  country  is  taken,  make 
her  the  great  lead  State  ;  she  produces  nearly  one-half  of  all 
the  zinc  used  in  America,  and  she  is  therefore  the  great  zinc 
State  ;  while  her  coal  mines  are  so  large  and  numerous  as  to 
be  well-nigh  inexhauotible.  Here,  then,  is  a  combination  or 
union  of  natural  advantages  which  perforce  make  Missouri  the 
greatest  State  in  the  Union  ;  and  since  St.  Louis  must  of 
necessity  be  the  receptacle  of  Missouri  products,  she  is  placed  ) 


COMMERCIAL    ENTREPOT  OF  THE  WORLD.  29 

in  such  an  advivntageous  position  as  to  impel  her  growth  for 
ages  yet  to  come.  But  the  half  has  not  yet  been  told.  The 
gold  and  silver  mines  of  the  nation  lie  west  of  the  ISIississippi ; 
these  mines  furnish  not  only  the  bullion  from  which  the  coin 
and  jewelry  of  America  is  made,  but  the  product  is  so  great 
that  we  can  supply  the  world  with  the  precious  metals. 

The  greatest  Government  mint  will  some  day  be  located  in 
St.  Louis,  because  nearly  every  ounce  of  ore  extracted  from 
the  rich  beds  of  the  West  must  pass  through  this  city  en  route 
for  the  markets  of  the  world. 

The  most  important  factor  in  the  evolution  of  St.  Louis' 
destiny,  however,  is  the  Mississippi  River,  the  main  artery  of 
Western  commerce,  the  highway  over  which  must  travel  the 
richly  laden  argosies  on  their  way  to  other  countries.  The 
completion  of  the  Jetties  has  removed  the  last  barrier  which 
separated  St.  Louis  from  Europe,  Asia  and  South  America. 
It  was  like  lowering  the  portcullis  of  an  impregnable  fortress 
to  admit  the  couriers  of  a  truce  and  the  establishment  of 
friendly  and  essential  relations  between  a  strange  people. 

There  remains  but  a  single  link  to  complete  the  chain 
which  must  bind  St.  Louis  to  the  very  highest  destiny  attained 
by  any  city  of  either  ancient  or  modern  times.  Only  one 
more  great  work  to  be  accomplished,  an<;I  the  manifestation  of 
justice  will  consummate  the  last  need  of  St.  Louis  and  the 
West.  This  essential  requisite  is  the  improvement  of  the 
Missouri  and  Mississippi  rivers  in  a  manner  commensurate 
with  the  importance  of  the  work.  The  West,  fortunateljs  is 
verging  from  youth  into  a  vigorous  manhood,  and  is  now 
ready  to  measure  strength  with  the  sectional  spirit  of  the  East, 
which  has  so  long  deprived  us  of  well-merited  appropriations 
in  order  to  stunt  the  growth  of  the  Western  scion.  With  a 
permanent  channel  of  twenty  feet  in  our  Western  rivers — 
which  will  be  secured  within  the  next  ten  years — the  West 
will  grow  as  if  touched  by  magic,  and  St.  Louis  would  leap 
into  an  importance  equal  to  New  York  and  London  in  an 
almost  incredibly  short  space  of  time.  These  results  will  be 
ultimately  attained,  and  it  is  neither  chimerical  nor  unreason- 
able to  prophesy  that  St.  Louis  will  be  the  greatest  city  on 
either  continent  within  the  next  fifty  years. 


PUBLIC    INSTITUTIONS. 


ST.  LOUIS  WATER-WORKS. 

The  rapid  growth  of  St.  Louis  is  well  uttcsted  by  the 
increase  in  the  capacity  of  the  varivuis  works  that  have  from 
time  to  time  supplied  the  city  with  water.  In  1850  water  was 
distributed  throughout  the  city  by  means  of  seventeen  miles 
of  pipe.  In  1874  there  was  used  for  the  same  purpose  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

The  first  reservoir  was  (ionstructed  on  Ashley  and  Collins 
streets,  on  the  east  side  of  Fifth  Street,  in  1832.  It  had  a 
storage  capacity  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  gallons. 
In  1849  these  works  were  al)andoned,  and  on  Benton  Street, 
about  a  mile  west  of  the  river,  new  works  were  built  with  a 
capacity  of  seven  million  gallons.  Another  reservoir  was  added 
in  1854  with  a  capacity  of  forty  million  gallons.  In  less  than 
two  decades  these  works  were  found  inadequate  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  the  fast  growing  capital  of  the  West.  At  BisscH's 
Point  a  tract  of  land  adjoining  the  river,  and  situated  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  city,  a  new  site  was  purchased  at  an  expense  of 
ninetv-cight  thousand  dollars,  and  in  1871  was  completed  the 
magnificent  works  from  which  the  city  now  deiives  its  abun- 
dant supply  of  wdiolesome  water.  With  a  capacity  of  sixty 
million  gallons,  and  machinery  capable  of  pumping  fifty-eight 
million  gallons  daily,  the  present  system  of  water-works  bids 
fair  to  endure  much  longer  than  its  predecessors. 

The  Water-works  comprise  two  series  of  buildings,  known 
as  the  "  hio;h  service  "  and  "low  service"  buildinirs.  The 
latter  are  located  on  the  river  bank,  and  the  former  about  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  distant.  Two  hundred  feet  from  the  river  bank, 
and  united  with  it  by  means  of  a  foot-bridge,  is  the  inlet  tower. 
From  this  tower,  by  means  of  an  induction  pipe  five  feet  six  inches 

[30J 


PUBLIC    INSTITUTIONS.  31 

in  diameter,  is  pumped  the  water  needed  l)v  the  eit  v.  The  tower 
is  oval  in  form,  twenty  feet  long  hy  ten  feet  wide.  Its  founda- 
tions rest  on  the  bed-roek  of  the  river  ;  the  greater  part  of  the 
tower  is,  of  course,  submeruetl.  The  "  low  service  "  group  of 
buildings  consist  of  an  engine  and  boiler-house,  coal  storage- 
house,  and  smokestack  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  high. 
In  their  construction — though  built  pre-eminently  for  use — 
much  good  taste  has  been  displayed.  The  material  used  is 
brick,  with  bases,  quoins  and  mouldings  of  Joliet  stone.  The 
engine-room  is  fifty  feet  long  and  forty-one  feet  wide  :  the 
walls  are  wainscoted  with  oak  and  black  walnut,  and  the 
floors  are  laid  with  cast-iron  plates  and  encaustic  tiles.  Here 
are  situated  three  puini)ing  engines — two  of  them  are  of  the 
Cornish  "Bull"'  pattern,  and  were  built  by  the  Knapp  Fort 
Pitt  Foundry  Company,  of  Pittsburgh,  in  1870.  The  steam 
cylinders  and  pump  plungers  have  each  a  di:uiieter  of  lifty-six 
inches,  and  a  twelve-foot  length  of  stroke.  Each  pump  is 
provided  with  a  stand-pipe  located  in  the  engine-room.  The 
capacity  of  each  pump  is  seventeen  million  gallons  in  twen- 
ty-four hours.  The  third  engine,  of  a  more  powerful  type, 
and  capable  of  delivering  twenty-four  million  gallons  in  twentv- 
four  hours,  was  built  in  1874  ;  the  contract  price  Mas  one 
hundred  and  eighteen  thousand  live  hundred  dollars.  It  is  a 
crank  and  flv-wheel  enirine,  and  works  two  sinole-acting- 
plunger  pumps,  one  at  each  end  of  the  beam  and  placed  in  the 
pump-pit.  Steam  for  these  engines  is  furnished  by  a  battery 
of  double-flue  Cornish  boilers,  seven  feet  in  diameter  and 
thirty  feet  long.     Two  boilers  are  used  Avith  each  engine. 

The  water  jnimped  irom  the  river  by  these  engines  con- 
tains too  much  mud  and  other  impurities  to  be  tit  for  imme- 
diate use,  and  has  to  be  passed  through  a  series  of  settling 
basins  before  being  distributed  throughout  the  city.  The 
basins  are  four  in  number,  each  eighteen  feet  deep,  and  with 
an  area  of  162,000  feet. 

The  "  high  service  "  buildings  consist  of  an  engine-house, 
boiler-house,  coal-shed,  and  smokestack  one  hundred  thirty- 
four  feet  high.  The  engine-house  is  a  veiy  handsome  struct- 
ure, two  stories  high,  and  ninety-two  feet  long  by  eighty-six 
feet  wide.     It  is  constructed  of  brick,  with  base,  cornice,  and 


32 


TOUIt    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


strinp^-c'onrse  of  cut  stone.  The  iuiglcs  are  also  dressed  with 
cut  stone.  The  main  entrance  is  reached  by  a  broad  flight  of 
stone  steps,  and  above  the  door-way,  on  the  pediment  of  the 
principal  facade,  are  two  sculptured  figures,  the  "  Union 
of  Waters,"    symbolical   of  the   union  of  the  Missouri   and 


L. 


Mississippi.  The  interior  consists  of  one  lofty  room,  with 
handsomely  wainscoted  walls  and  paneled  ceiling.  Around 
this  room  extends  a  balcony,  which  is  reached  by  a  spiral  stair- 
case.   Here  are  three  immense  pumping  engines,  corresponding 


PUBLIC    INSTITUTIONS. 


33 


to  those  in  the  ' '  h)W  service ' ' 
house.  Two  of  them  were  built 
by  the  Knapp  Fort  Pitt  Foundry 
Company,  of  Pittsburgh.  They 
are  single  cylinder  crank  and  fly- 
wheel engines,  working  double- 
acting  pumps.  The  steam  cylin- 
ders are  eighty-five  inches  in  diam- 
eter and  the  length  of  stroke  ten 
feet.  The  fly-wheels  are  twenty- 
six  feet  in  diameter  and  weigh 
thirty-five  tons.  Each  pump  has 
a  capacity  of  sixteen  million  five 
hundred  thousand  gallons  in  twen- 
ty-four hours.  The  third  pump 
is  worked  by  a  pair  of  compound 
enofines,  connected  with  crank  and 
fly-wheel,  the  latter  thirty-two 
feet  in  diameter  and  weighing 
thirty-five  tons.  These  engines 
were  constructed  by  the  Hartford 
Foundry  and  jNIachine  Company, 
in  1874,  for  two  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  dollars,  and  have 
a  capacity  estimated  at  one  million 
gallons  per  hour. 

Truly  grand  is  the  spectacle  of 
all  this  massive  machinery  in  mo- 
tion. "With  very  little  noise  these 
engines  perform  their  great  tasks. 
So  little  is  there  of  the  racket  and 
seeming  confusion  which  usually 
attend  the  movements  of  large  and 
complicated  machiner}-,  that  in 
watching  the  slow,  dignified  mo- 
tions of  these  iron  "iants  one  is 
apt  to  forget  the  mighty  force  that 
animates  them  and  the  immense 
amount  of  work  they  accomplish. 


THE    STAND-PIPE. 


34 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


The  motor  power  of  these  enirines  is  supplied  by  six  "  re- 
turn drop-flue  boilers,"  six  feet  in  diiimeter  and  twenty-four 
feet  long,  with  a  grate  surface  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  square 
feet,  and  a  heating  surface  of  five  hundred  square  feet. 
By  these  latter  series  of  pumps,  the  water  that  has  re- 
mained long  enough  in  the  settling  basins  to  become  tolerably 
well  freed  from  sediment,  is  raised  about  two  hundred  feet  in 
the  stand  pipe,  a  mile  distant,  on  Grand  Avenue  and  Four- 
teenth Street.  This  stand-pipe  is  concealed  by  a  handsome 
Corinthian  column  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  feet  high  and 
forty-one  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base.  Access  to  the  summit 
may  be  gained  by  means  of  a  spiral  staircase,  winding  around 
the  pipe  in  the  interior.  From  this  elevated  position  a  very 
fine  vieAv  may  be  obtained  of  St.  Louis  and  vicinity.  The  water 
supplied  to  the  city  flows,  from  this  stand-pipe,  the  surplus 
water  passing  into  a  reservoir  on  Compton  Hill,  four  miles 
away,  which  has  storage  capacity  sufficient  for  sixty  million 
gallons.  The  daily  average  consumption  of  water  in  St.  Louis 
is  twenty-four  million  gallons. 


CITY  HALL. 

This  building  has  a  frontage  on  Eleventh  Street,  extending 
from  Chestnut  to  Market  streets.     It  is  three  stories  in  height. 


and  is  built  of  brick,  and  is  comparatively  a  new  structure. 
For  many  years  the  Court-house  was  over-crowded  with  a 
swarm  of  city  oflicials  that  were  located  there.      The  want 


PUBLIC    INSTITUTIONS.  35 

of  convenient  quarters  occasioned  the  erection  of  this  build- 
ing. 

The  city  officers  find  comfortable  quarters  here,  convenient 
to  the  Major  and  the  heads  of  the  several  bureaus  of  the  mu- 
nicipal government. 

The  Council  Chambers  with  the  following  elective  officials 
are  located  on  the  second  floor  of  the  building : 

Hon.  Henry  Overstolz,  Mayor,  occupies,  with  his  secreta- 
ries, room  No.  1  ;  Comptroller,  Edward  L.  Adreon,  room  No. 
3;  Treasurer,  Wm.  Patrick,  room  No.  5;  Auditor,  Gen.  A. 
J.  Smith,  room  No.  4;  Register,  Richard  Walsh,  room  No.  18. 

The  following  appointive  officers  are  situated  on  the  first 
floor : 

Board  of  Water  Commissioners,  Thos.  J.  Whitman  is  chief 
of  the  department,  with  Gen.  Wm.  Shields  as  Collector  of 
Water  Rates. 

James  C.  Moore,  Harbor  and  Wharf  Commissioner,  occu- 
pies, with  his  deputy,  Geo.  W.  Ford,  office  No.  21. 

Park  Commissioner,   Eugene   F.  Weigel,   occupies    office 
No.    13  ;  Sewer  Commissioner,  Robert  Moore,  office  No.  7 
Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings,  J.  W.  Allen,  office  No.  8 
Commissioner  of  Supplies,  Ferd.  L.  Garesche,  office  No.  26 
Inspector   of  Boilers,  John  Holland,  office  No.  20  :  Vehicle 
Inspector,  Jno.  T.  Murphy,  office  No.  27  ;  Recorder  of  Votes, 
Estill  McHenry,  office  No.  23  ;  Health  Commissioner,  Chas. 
W.  Francis  is  located  in  the  south  wing. 

The  following  officers  are  located  in  the  Four  Courts 
building : 

Prosecuting  Attorney,  Lewis  V.  Beach  ;  City  Attorney, 
Samuel  Erskine  ;  City  Marshal,  Isaac  M.  Mason;  Coroner, 
HuoTQ  Auler ;  Chief  of  Police,  James  McDonou^h ;  Jailer, 
James  Conway. 

Collector,  M.  A.  Rosenblatt ;  Sheriff,  John  Finn  ;  Circuit 
Clerk,  Philip  Stock  ;  Recorder  of  Deeds,  D.  H.  McAdam,  are 
located  in  the  Court-house. 


36 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


COURT-HOUSE. 

The  Court-house  occupies  the  block  bounded  by  Chestnut, 
Market,  Fourth  and  Fifth  streets.  The  site  it  occupies  was  a 
o-ift  of  Judae  J.  B.  C.  Lucas  and  Col.  Auiruste  Chouteau.  The 
buiUling  is  in  the  form  of  a  Greek  cross,  and  of  the  Doric 
order  of  architecture.  The  work  upon  the  building  was  com- 
menced about  1839.     Its  progress  was  very  tardy,  and  after 


long  and  tedious  efforts  it  was  finally  completed  in  1862.  The 
iron  dome  is  the  remarkable  feature  of  the  building.  Its 
handsome  proportions  strike  the  eye  as  a  perfect  piece  of  work- 
manship. Approaching  the  city  from  any  direction  it  is  the 
principal  object  that  attracts  the  sight.  From  the  summit  of 
the  dome,  which  is  reached  by  an  iron  staircase,  a  magnificent 
view  of  the  city  is  obtained.     Looking  north,  the  Shot  Tower, 


PUBLIC    INSTITUTIONS.  37 

the  St.  Louis  Elevator,  and  the  greiit  steel  Bridge  are  promi- 
nently in  view.  Looking  east,  the  Advance  Elevator  looms  up, 
and  the  Stock-yards  are  visible,  while  the  great  prairies  of 
Illinois  spread  themselves  in  all  their  expansiveness.  In  the 
west,  the  rising  ground  shows  prominently  the  new  Custom- 
house, the  various  church  spires,  and  the  great  Union  Depot 
with  its  trains  in  constant  activity.  The  stranger  is  well  repaid 
for  the  necessary  labor  of  climbing  the  long,  winding  stair- 
way by  this  bird's-eye  view  he  obtains  of  the  busy  world  that 
lies  at  his  feet.  The  interior  of  the  dome  reveals  its  several 
galleries  and  magnificent  fresco  work. 

The  rooms  are  assigned  to  the  various  civil  courts,  Circuit 
and  Supreme  Courts.  The  Law  Library,  which  is  the  property 
of  the  Bar  Association,  occupies  one  of  the  rooms  ;  while  the 
Recorder,  Assessor,  Sheriff,  Collector,  and  other  city  officials, 
have  their  appropriate  quarters  in  the  building. 

The  grounds  about  the  building  are  suitably  ornamented 
with  trees,  flowers,  and  fountains,  that  give  it  an  air  of  beauty 
and  attraction 


THE  NEW  CUSTOM-HOUSE  AND  POST-OFFICE. 

This  new  structure,  in  course  of  erection,  occupies  the  block 
bounded  by  Olive  and  Locust,  Eighth  and  Ninth  streets.  It  is 
another  monument  indicating  the  growth  and  importance  of 
St.  Louis  as  a  commercial  center.  The  growth  of  the  city  and 
the  magnitude  of  governmental  business  rendered  the  old 
building  on  the  corner  of  Olive  and  Third  streets  inadequate. 
The  United  States  Government  purchased  the  entire  block  and 
excavations  were  at  once  begun  in  1873.  After  much  difficulty 
and  driving  sufficient  number  of  piles  to  render  the  foundation 
more  solid,  the  grand  structure  began  to  go  up  and  assume 
shape  and  proportions.  The  lower  portion  is  built  of  JNIissouri 
granite  from  the  region  of  the  Iron  Mountain.  Above  the 
basement  Maine  granite  is  employed.  The  Corinthian  order 
prevails,  and  when  completed  Avill  be  one  of  the  most  imposing 
and  truly  magnificent  structures  in  the  city.     The  basement 


38 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


opens  up  to  the  grand  railway  tunnel  that  passes  under  Eighth 
Street.  By  means  of  side-tracks  the  greatest  facilities  for 
handling  the  mails  as  they  arrive  and  depart  will  be  afforded. 
The  length  of  the  building  is  two  hundred  and  thirty-six  feet 


NEW  CUSTOM-HOUSE  AND  POST-OFFICE 

and  one  hundred  and  eighty-one  feet  wide.  Ample  space  is 
afforded  hi  the  upper  stories  for  all  the  United  States  offices, 
including  post,  custom  and  internal  revenue  offices,  and  the 
various  courts  of  the  general  Government. 


MARKETS. 

No  city  in  this  country  can  boast  of  better  markets  than  are 
found  with  us. 

Union  Market,  situated  on  Christy  Avenue,  Morgan,  Fifth 
and  Sixth  streets,  is  the  chief  market  of  the  city.  It  is  a  j)op- 
ular  resort.  Every  conceivable  kind  of  meat,  fish,  vegetable, 
fruit  and  necessaries  for  the  table  are  found  here  in  the  great- 
est abundance.     The  quantity  of  provisions  brought  here  daily 


PUBLIC    INSTITUTIONS. 


39 


makes  it  the  best  place  to  buy  family  supplies,  because  of  the 
variety  and  certainty  of  being  fresh.  Sunmier  mornings  pre- 
sent a  lively  scene  from  one  end  of  the  market  to  the  other. 
Saturday  night  is  perhaps  the  crowning  period  of  the  week. 
Throngs  of  buyers  securing  their  supplies  for  Sunday  and  the 
coming  week,  keep  eveiy  butcher  and  green  grocer  lively  until 


UNION   iVJAUKET. 

a  late  hour  in  the  night.  Brilliantly  illuminated,  the  jostling 
crowds  make  the  market  a  scene  of  activity  and  merriment. 
To  meet  the  wants  of  our  people  markets  of  less  proportions 
are  located  in  various  parts  of  the  city.  A  few  of  the  princi- 
pal ones  may  be  named  : 

Biddle  Market,  corner  Thirteenth  and  Biddle  streets. 

City  Market,  corner  Broadway  and  Biddle  Street. 

French  Market,  Convent,  Fourth  and  Fifth  streets. 

Maguire  :Market,  Broadway  and  Bremen  Avenue. 

Sturgeon  Market,  Broadway  and  North  Market  Street. 


40 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


Centre  Market,  on  Seventh  Street,  occupying  the  block 
between  Pophir  and  Spruce  streets. 

Lucas  Market,  on  Twelfth  Street,  from  Chestnut  to  Olire 
Soulard  Market,  Seventh  Street,  near  Carroll. 


iy%/i-,j 


m 


LUCAS   MARKET. 


Butcher  shops  are  established  throughout  the  city,  which 
sujjply  families  who  may  not  be  disposed  to  visit  these  miirkete 
on  account  of  remoteness  and  the  convenience  of  a  l)utcher 
nearer  home. 


PLANTLRb'  IIOUsL-On  ]  nutUi  ^li  ett,  occupy  111^' the  Mjuaio  bul  -v een  Chestnut 
and  Pine  streets.    Kclaey  &  Stickney,  proprietois. 


42 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


MCDOWELL'S  OLD  COLLEGE. 

The  memories  of  Gratiot  Street  Prison  will  never  fade 
from  the  minds  of  hundrecls  of  people  now  living  nntil  con- 
sciousness is  palsied  by  death.  Dr.  J.  N.  McDowell,  a  famous 
•'  surgeon,  whose  name  is  prominently  connected  wath  the  events 
^  of  St.  Louis  history  in  the  years  preceding  the  late  war,  and 
for  the  first  years  of  that  great  conflict,  had  caused  the  very 
remarkable  structure,  so  accurately  represented  in  the  picture, 


OLD  GUATIOT  STREET  PRISON. 

to  be  built  for  the  accommodation  of  the  faculty  and  students 
of  the  Missouri  Medical  Collesre. 

Soon  after  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  Dr.  Mc- 
Dowell's College  building  was  seized  by  the  military  authori- 
ties and  converted  into  a  prison  for  the  detention  of  political 
offenders  and  military  prisoners.  Within  its  gloomy  walls 
many  thousands  of  men  and  many  women  were  immured 
through  weary  weeks  and  months. 


Mcdowell's  old  college.  43 

From  1862  to  1865  there  were  confined  within  its  strong 
walls,  not  only  Confeclemte  prisoners  of  war,  but  guerrillas, 
bushwhackers,  bridge  burners,  rebel  mail  carriers,  spies,  Fed- 
eral deserters,  robbers,  murderers,  and  criminals  of  every 
grade. 

The  victims  embraced  many  who  had  occupied  high  official 
positions,  including  United  States  Senators,  legislators  and 
army  officers.  Naturally  those  who  were  incarcerated  became 
embittered  by  the  treatment  received  and  the  severity  of  the 
punishment  meted  out  to  them.  Notwithstanding  this,  there 
are  those  who  can  testify  to  the  many  deeds  of  charity  ex- 
tended to  them  by  the  fair  hands  of  good  Samaritans  ;  many 
from  a  love  for  doing  good,  not  only  cheered  the  weary  hours 
of  the  prisoner,  but  saved  many  a  human  life  by  tender  care 
for  the  sick  and  wounded  ones. 

Some  there  were,  in  those  dark  times,  who  went  in  at  its 
doors  to  come  out  among  the  living  no  more.  Military  execu- 
tions were  not  of  infrequent  occurrence,  and  among  the  most 
saddening  remembrances  of  the  old  spot  that  figured  so  ex- 
tensively during  the  war.  One  dreary  morning,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  1864,  seven  men,  who  had  been  condemned  to  die 
in  retaliation  for  the  assassination  of  a  Major  Wilson,  were 
led  forth,  ranged  in  a  line,  and  sent  to  their  final  account 
by  a  volley  of  bullets.  No  one  may  ever  tell  of  the  torture 
of  mind  endured  by  the  human  beings  once  confined  within 
the  walls  of  Gratiot  Street  Prison. 

But  the  old  landmark,  which  for  years  remained  tenantless 
after  the  war-clouds  had  rolled  away,  will  soon  disappear,  and 
then  the  grand,  gloomy,  strangely  constructed  building  will 
exist  only  in  history  and  in  the  memories  of  those  who  suffered 
there. 


THE   PARKS. 


Experience  has  taught  careful  obs-ervers  that  the  contact  of 
man  with  natural  scenery  tends  not  only  to  a  good  sanitary 
condition,  but  also  elevates  him  morally.  The  populations  of 
the  Old  World,  crowded  into  cities,  where  no  access  can  be  had 
to  trees  and  flowers,  must  necessarily  become  and  remaui 
demoralized. 

In  our  own  country  the  best  specimens  of  manhood,  our 
statesmen,  philosophers  and  teachers,  as  well  as  our  poets  and 
artists,  have  all,  in  early  life,  been  the  children  of  the  woods 
and  fields.  In  fact,  any  form  of  civilization  that  tends  to  shut 
out  nature  produces  a  stunled  manhood. 

Realizing  this  truth,  the  leading  minds  of  St.  Louis  have 
sought,  in  the  arrangement  and  distribution  of  our  public 
parks,  the  best  welfare  of  its  citizens.  As  a  general  rule,  a 
love  of  the  beautiful  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a  practice  of  the 
good.  As  the  average  amount  of  soap  used  by  any  district  is 
proved  to  be  the  measure  of  the  average  amount  of  good 
behavior,  so  the  same  laws,  working  in  the  same  direction, 
prove  that  people  who  are  brought  closely  and  frequently  in 
contact  with  nature  are  really  better  men  and  women  than 
those  who  do  not  receive  those  advantages.  The  advance  in 
civilization  and  culture  of  any  people  may  safely  be  estimated 
from  the  extent  and  variety  of  its  parks  and  gardens. 

In  this  respect  St.  Louis  occupies  a  prominent  position. 
There  are  seventeen  parks  in  the  city,  some  very  extensive, 
others  smaller,  but  all  so  arranged  as  to  location  and  diversity 
of  character  and  beauty  that  none,  even  among  the  humblest 
citizens,  are  shut  out  from  their  benefits. 

[44] 


CITY    PARKS. 


45 


LAFAYETTE  PARK, 

Covering  thirty  acres,  is  known  throughout  the  West,  as  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  effective  pieces  of  landscape  gar- 
dening on  the  continent.     Its  location,  on  a  high  piece  of 


land  south  of  Chouteau  Aveuue,  surrounded  on  all  sides  bj 
magnificent  private  residences,  has  made  it  the  favorite  resort 
of  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis,  as  well  as  one  of  the  sights  to  be 
visited  by  strangers. 


46 


TOL'K    OF    ST,    LOUIS. 


Miss  Hosmer's  statue  of  Benton,  the  pure  patriot  of  Mis- 
souri, occu})ics  an  honored  place  beneath  the  shade  of  its  elms 
and  mai)les,  while  another  of  Washington  looks  calmly  upon 
a  scene,  springing  up  from  the  repul)lican  seeds  which  he 
planted  in  tlie  hearts  of  the  i)eo})le. 

Rare  and  curious  plants,  mosses  and  creepers,  adorn  its 
beautiful  grotto  and  fountains  ;  swans  glide  gracefully  on  its 
miniatiu'e  lake ;  while  many  families  date  the  commence- 
ment of  their  happiness  from  the  day  "  two  hearts  that  beat  as 
one"  began  to  understand  the  divine  mystery  of  love.  The 
city  has  expended  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars 
since  1804  in  beautifying  this  temple  of  nature,  which  has 
been  rei)aid  many  times  in  the  increased  culture  and  apprecia- 
tion of  the  beautiful  in  the  lives  of  its  citizens.  No  descrip- 
tion can  adequately  portray  Lafayette  Park.  It  must  be  seen, 
and  then  words  become  useless. 

During  the  sum- 
mer season  it  is 
customary  to  have 
concerts  twice  a 
week  in  Lafayette 
Park,  and  one  of 
the  best  bands  of 
musicians  in  the 
^S.  city  is  engaged  for 
that  purpose. 

On  such  occa- 
rfons  the  park  is 
crowded  with  thou- 
sands of  visitors, 
who  evince  their 
pleasure  and  ap- 
preciation by  at- 
tending    from    all 

PAGODA-LAFAYETTE  PAKK.  p.^^-ts     of  the     city. 

The  most  perfect  order  is  observed,  seats  are  arranged  for  the 
comfort  of  those  w-ho  need  rest,  while  young  and  old,  for- 
getting for  a  time  the  cares  of  life,  take  up  unconsciously  the 
gentle  lesson  whispered  to  their  hearts  in  the  waving  of  tree^,* 


CITY    PARKS. 


47 


the  blossoming  of  flowei-s,  tlic  plashing  of  tlie  fonntains,  and 
return  to  their  homes  wiser  and  better  eitizens.  The  time  is 
not  fiir  distant  when  all  our  parks,  especially  the  larger  ones, 
Avill  have  the  same  advantages  of  music,  etc.,  now  possessed 
by  Lafayette  Park.  As  we  advance  in  knowledge,  we  are 
learning  more  and  more  the  value  of  that  immortal  lesson 
taught  by  the  Bard  of  Avon,  that  there  are  "  Sermons  in 
stones,  books  in  the  running  brooks,  and  good  in  every- 
thins:." 


POLICE  HEADtJUAUTKKS-LAFAYETl'E  PARK. 


tc)wp:i{  grove  park. 

Containing  three  hundred  and  Hftv  acres,  lying  on  the  south- 
west of  the  city,  is  the  magnificent  gift  of  Henry  Shaw,  one  of 
St.  Louis'  most  respected  citizens. 

Under  the  care  of  the  city,  Tower  Grove  Park  is  rapidly 
developing  in  beauty.  Its  avenues  and  roads  are  the  favorite 
drives  of  our  Avealthy  citizens,  while  pedestrians  find  pure  air, 
rich  landscape  and  country  quiet  in  abundance  for  their  enjoy- 
ment.    The  eastern  entrance  to  the  park  is  marked  by  massive 


48  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

granite  pillars,  surmounted  by  griffins,  and  two  Norman  towers 
indicate  its  western  approach.  A  number  of  appropriate 
buildings  are  scattered  throughout  the  grounds,  and  every 
year  adds  new  beauties  and  develops  new  possibilities  for  the 
enjoyment  of  visitors.  The  park  has  cost  thus  far  over  half 
a  million  dollars.  The  city  makes  annual  appropriations  for 
its  improvement. 

O'FALLON  PARK. 

This  park,  containing  one  hundred  and  eighty  acres,  is  as 
yet  in  all  the  wild  beauty  of  nature  ;  it  is  situated  in  the 
northern  part  of  St.  Louis,  and  will  soon  become  one  of  the 
beauty  spots  of  our  beautiful  surroundings. 

FOREST  PARK. 

As  soon  as  the  fact  Avas  established  that  Forest  Park  was 
to  become  city  property  for  the  benefit  of  all  its  citizens,  it 
gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  value  of  all  real  estate  in  its 
vicinity.  Possessing  natural  advantages  offered  by  no  other 
park  in  the  United  States,  it  was  readily  foreseen  that  landed 
property  must  largely  increase  in  value.  When  its  grand 
drives  are  perfected,  its  boulevards  completed  for  pedestrians, 
and  its  avenues  supplied  sufficiently  with  seats  and  points  of 
rest,  this  must  become  by  far  the  most  attractive  point  for 
first-class  residences,  and  the  cost,  as  in  the  case  of  Central 
Park,  New  York,  Avill  be  more  than  covered  by  the  enhanced 
value  of  lands  for  building  purposes,  and  consequently  a  much 
larger  revenue  from  taxation. 

Chauncey  T.  Bowen,  of  Chicago,  a  gentleman  having  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject,  says  :  "Forest  Park  has 
the  best  natural  advantages  for  a  park  of  any  in  the  world." 

Forest  Park,  in  the  extreme  western  part  of  St.  Louis,  is  a 
s]()lendid  possession  of  fourteen  hundred  acres,  as  large  almost 
as  the  celebrated  Hyde  and  Regent's  parks  of  London  combined. 

The  river  Des  Peres  winds  its  way  through  the  grounds, 
while  magnificent  forest  trees  mingled  with  English  walnut, 
and  other  European  trees,  lend  their  rich  foliage  to  the  scenery. 

As  the  city's  growth  shall  extend,  and  eventually  surround 
this  district,  Forest  Park  will  become  to  the  West  what  the 


CITY    PARKS.  49 

old  parks  of  Paris  and  Berlin  are  to  its  citizens  and  visitors, 
viz:  great  breathing  places,  where  f6r .  a  while  the  cares  and 
turmoil  of  life  are  cast  aside,  and  old  and  3^oung  can  commune 
with  nature,  and  at  times  hear  her  everlasting  story  whispering 
to  their  hearts. 

To  Hiram  H.  Leffingwell  and  Andrew  McKinley  the  citi- 
zens of  St.  Louis  are  indebted  chiefly  for  this  handsome 
adornment  to  the  cit3^  Their  zeal  and  devotion  secured  the 
legislative  sanction  to  the  scheme.  Besides  personal  attention 
to  beautifying  the  grounds,  they  were  public-spirited  enough 
to  devote  their  valua])le  time  without  pecuniary  reward. 

The  smaller  parks,  such  as  Missouri,  Jackson,  Hyde  Park, 
and  others,  are  situated  immediately  within  the  more  densely 
populated  portions  of  St.  Louis  ;  they  are  each  and  all  beau- 
tiful, and  to  those  whose  occupations  are  confining,  or  of 
limited  means,  they  afford  veiy  great  benefit,  as  well  as  pleas- 
ure. When  the  labors  of  the  day  are  ended,  those  resorts 
are  crowded  by  visitors,  who  appreciate  their  advantages. 

It  is  now  an  established  fact  that  the  presence  of  trees 
tends  to  destroy  malarial  diseases  :  not  only  the  eucalyptus,  but 
all  other  trees,  in  some  degree  are  advantageous  to  health. 
Man  and  animals  produce  large  amounts  of  carbonic  acid  in 
the  atmosphere,  and  need  a  large  amount  of  oxygen  ;  while 
trees,  on  the  contrary,  feed  on  carbonic  acid,  and  give  forth 
oxygen ;  thus  the  animal  and  vegetable  worlds  are  counter- 
parts, and  necessary  to  each  other. 

That  trees  may  thrive,  birds  are  necessary.  Years  ago, 
before  this  fact  was  recognized,  some  of  the  parks  in  Eastern 
cities  were  almost  destroyed,  owing  to  the  wanton  destruction 
of  birds,  and  the  consequent  rapid  increase  of  insect  life.  To 
remedy  this  ignorance,  a  large  number  of  English  sparrows 
have  been  imported  into  various  city  parks,  and  now,  in  St. 
Louis,  under  a  wiser  rule  than  of  old,  the  birds  are  fed  and 
encouraged,  and  vegetation  becomes  healthier  and    stronger. 

As  Herbert  sang  two  hundred  years  ago — 

"  All  things  wait  on  man ; 
In  every  path  he  finds  what  doth  befriend  him; 

O  mighty  Love,  naan  is  one  world, 
And  hath  another  to  attend  him." 


50 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


SHAW'S  GAKDEN. 

Every  lurin'  city  possesses  its  one  object  of  supreme  in- 
terest. In  the  bid  World  it  is  either  some  ruined  castle  of 
feudal  times,  some  wonderful  church  or  old  abbey,  erected  by 
the  patient  devotion  of  the  early  saints,  or  tradition  saves  some 
relic  of  departed  heroism,  and  fondly  cherishes  it  to  mark  a 
o-lory  and  an  age  long  passed  away.     But  in  the  United  States 

we  are  shut  out 
^  from  all  such  re- 
sources ;  we  can 
onl}"  point  to  an 
Indian  mound,  or 
takmg  the  other 
alternative,  build 
our  own  moun- 
ments,  leaving  to 
those  who  may 
come  after  us  the 
task  of  preserv- 
ing and  glorify- 
ing them. 

Shaw's  Garden 
is  especially  an 
ever  -  pres  ent 
l)lessing,  as  M^ell 
as  a  shrine  where, 
in  the  future,  the 
people  nniy  see 
what  one  man  with  a  large  heart  and  good  judgment  may 
accomplish  by  the  judicious  expenditure  of  money.  The 
grounds  of  Shaw's  Garden  comprise  about  one  hundred  acres, 
the  most  of  it  surrounded  by  a  high  stone  wall.  Within  the 
enclosure,  the  visitor  learns  what  devotion  and  untiring  labor 
may  develope.  Flowers  and  flowering  shrubs,  so  beautiful 
and  varied  that  the  eye  wearies  at  last  with  their  myriad 
colors.  Temperate  and  tropical  regions  lavishly  show  forth 
their  luxury  of  foliage  ;  the  roses  of  Cashmere  were  never  half 
so  beautiful,  or  varied   in  tint   and   color;  the  lilies  of   the 


INTEUIOR  OF  PLANT  HOUSE. 


valley  which  out- 
shone     Solomon, 
here  glory  in  dis- 
playing their  gor- 
geous tints  ;  puhiis 
and  pines,  bananas 
and  firs,  the  cactus 
of  the  desert,  and 
the  Victoria  water- 
lily,  all  find  their 
ai^propriate      care 
and    elements    of 
growth.       As    an 
educator    in    ])ot- 
■any,  Shaw's  Gar- 
den is  the  best  col- 
lege in  the  world. 
The    Museum     of 
Natural  History  is 
filled  with  a  mul- 
titude    of     interesting     oIj- 
jects.     The    hot-houses   and 
green  -  houses    are    all     ar- 
ranged   with     scientific    ac- 
curacy, and    filled  with   the  ^ 
best  specimens  of  I'are  and 
curious  vegetation. 

Mr.  Shaw,  the  proprietor, 
is  an  Englishman — an  adopt- 
ed citizen  of  St.  Louis — 
bringino-  to  his  work  all  the 
devotion  and  tender  care  of 
a  lover  ;  treating  his  flowers 
as  a  loving  parent  does  his 
children,  and  finding  in  his 
life-work  not  only  personal 
pleasure,  but  that  higher  and 
nobler  aim,  the  welfare  of 
St.  Louis  citizens. 


JNTERIOR  OF  PLANT  HOUSE. 


TUE  PAVILION. 


52 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


Shaw's  Garden  is  an  enduring  monument,  nobler  than 
battle-fields  of  death,  sweeter  than  any  man-made  creed, 
and  holier  than  any  relic  of  dead  saints  or  buried  treasure. 
Citizens  and  strangers  have  all  free  admission  on  proper  ap- 
plication being  made. 


THE  MUSEUM— SHAW'S  GARDEN. 


ST.  LOUIS  FAIR  GROUNDS. 


The  grounds  occupied  by  the  St.  Louis  Fair  Association  at 
present  include  nearly  one  hundred  acres.  Commencing  not 
many  years  since,  as  an  ordinary  venture  in  calling  together 
citizens  and  farmers,  for  the  purpose  of  comparing  and  exhib- 
iting the  products  of  town  and  country,  it  has  rapidly  devel- 
oped into  a  magnificent  enterprise,  holding  in  October  of  each 
year  the  largest  fair  on  the  continent.  At  first  a  limited 
amount  of  machinery  and  mechanical  products  were  placed 
side  by  side  with  the  handiwork  of  the  loom,  the  anvil,  and  the 
fruits  and  cereals  of  the  husbandman.  At  present  all  civilized 
nations  contribute  of  their  genius  to  make  our  annual  displays 
famous.  Scores  of  acres  of  ground  are  covered  with  buildings, 
where  steam,  and  heat,  and  electricity   show  forth  the  brain- 


FAIR    GROUNDS, 


53 


power  guiding  and  governing  modern  civilization.  Temples 
to  art  and  literature  are  filled  with  the  works  of  the  master's 
hand.  The  mighty  press  is  represented  by  newspaper  and 
magazine  buildings.  There  are  miles  of  agricultural  imple- 
ments, thousands  of    mechanical  contrivances   for  increasing 


home  comforts,  wonderful  displays  of  silks,  laces,  and  cloths. 
Eveiy  conceivable  interest  is  represented  which  tends  to  en- 
tourage advanced  ideas,  and  give  the  consumer  the  benetit  of 
the  latest  improvements. 

Prize    cattle,  horses,  hogs,  sheep   and   poultry,  of  every 


54  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

conceivable  variety  and  fancy,  breeJ  and  blood,  are  here  an- 
nually collected  to  cliallengc  inspection  and  competition  with 
the  workl.  The  immense  amiDitheatre,  where  a  hundred 
thousand  visitors  may  witness  thoroughbred  racers  and  pacers 
running  for  victor}',  stands  in  the  center  of  the  enclosure, 
while  the  zoological  collection  of  wild  animals  and  l)irds  occu- 
pies a  number  of  appropriate  buildings,  erected  expressly  for 
their  accommodation. 

It  is  a  gigantic  work  to  superintend  and  provide  for  the 
vast  number  of  exhibitors  and  visitors  who  every  year  throng 
the  place.  Most  of  the  prominent  restaurant  and  hotel  men 
attend  to  the  hungry.  St.  Louis  lager  and  other  beverages 
find  plenty  of  dispensers  and  patrons,  and  those  who  love 
amusement  find  all  the  last  wonderful  novelties  scattered  broad- 
cast for  their  special  jDleasure.  The  inducements  held  out  to 
meritorious  inventions  are  very  great,  the  association  devoting 
nearly  fifty  thousand  dollars  annually  for  premiums,  in  addi- 
tion to  medals  and  ribbons. 

Many  j^rominent  citizens  are  closely  identified  with  the 
growth  and  continued  success  of  the  St.  Louis  fair.  The  late 
Arthur  B.  Barret  worked  most  enthusiastically  for  its  welfare, 
while  to  the  present  Secretary,  G.  O.  Kalb,  is  owing  much  of 
its  present  popularity.  The  fair  season  continues  one  week, 
but  in  addition  to  this  the  managers  commenced  last  year  a 
grand  art  and  mechanical  exhibition,  where  St.  Louis  trade 
and  manufactures  were  especially  prominent.  The  first  experi- 
ment was  abundantly  successful,  and  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  succeeding  expositions  will  meet  increased  support. 
Thursday,  the  great  day  of  the  fair  during  fair  week,  is  always 
an  official  and  public  holiday.  It  is  a  wonderful  scene  to  ob- 
serve the  thousands  of  vehicles  of  all  descriptions,  from  the 
elegant  barouche,  with  its  splendid  team  of  thoroughbreds  and 
liveried  coachman,  to  the  huckster's  cart,  drawn  by  one  phren- 
sied  animal,  and  driven  by  a  human  being  equally  phrensied, 
all  rushing  to  the  fair. 

High  and  low  life  come  close  together  on  that  day.  The 
teacher  and  taught  meet  in  the  common  school,  the  stroke  of 
the  engine,  the  whirling  of  wheels,  the  rushing  of  water,  the: 
clicking  of  machinery,  the  cries  of  young  children,  the    sea- 


FAIR     GROUNDS.  55 

lion's  bark,  and  the  surging  of  an  omni}3resent  crowd,  make  a 
picture  once  seen  never  to  be  forgotten. 

Life,  here  and  there,  and  everywhere, 

The  foolish,  and  the  wise, 
A.  feast  prepared  that  each  may  share, 

And  all  bear  off  the  prize. 

The  collection  of  wild  animals  at  the  Fair  Grounds  is  not 
only  choice  but  extensive.  There  are  several  pairs  of  magnifi- 
cent lions,  splendid  specimens  of  Bengal  tigers,  leopards, 
panthers,  hyenas,  black  and  grizzly  bears.  In  a  huge  cistern, 
built  expressly  for  their  use,  sea-lions  from  California  disport 
themselves,  and  send  their  wild,  melancholy  bark  forth  into 
the  air.  The  collection  of  monkeys,  baboons  and  apes  is  very 
large  and  varied,  offering  a  continuous  fund  of  frolic  and 
quaint  humor  to  the  large  and  amused  crowd.  Among  birds 
there  are  eagles,  black,  gray  and  bald-headed  ;  African  con- 
dors, cockatoos,  macaws,  and  other  beautiful  tropical  birds. 
Foxes,  wolves,  wildcats,  ostriches,  kangaroos,  and  a  large 
number  of  small  rare  animals. 

The  arrano-ement  of  the  l)uildino's  for  the  comfort  of  the 
animals,  as  well  as  for  convenient  observation  of  their  habits, 
is  all  that  could  be  desired.  Additions  are  being  constantly 
made  as  fast  as  accommodations  can  be  provided.  Before  long 
the  zoological  collection  at  the  Fair  Grounds  will  no  doubt  be 
one  of  the  largfest  and  finest  in  the  world. 


THEATRES. 


There  are  three  principal  theatres  in  St.  Louis  :  The  Olym- 
pic, De  Bar's,  and  the  Theatre  Comique. 

THE  OLYMPIC, 

Situated  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Fifth  and  Walnut  streets, 
is  under  the  management  of  Charles  A.  Spaulding,  who  has 
been  its  proprietor  and  principal  business  manager  for  many 
years.  This  place  of  amusement  stands  among  the  foremost 
theatres  of  the  West  for  the  excellence  of  its  stock  company 
as  well  as  for  the  opportunities  it  has  given  the  public  of  seeing 
our  great  star  performers.  There  has  never  been  any  stint  in 
placing  the  standard  dramas  on  its  boards  ;  correct  costumes, 
fine  and  appropriate  scenery,  and  all  the  usual  paraphernalia, 
have  never  been  found  wanting.  Forrest  and  Davenport, 
Miss  Neilson,  Booth  and  Barrett,  Barry  Sullivan,  Florence, 
Barney  Williams,  Sothern,  have  all  in  turn  delighted  the  public 
under  its  roof.  The  building  is  well-lighted  and  comfortably 
seated ;  just  the  size  for  witnessing  high-class  comedy  and 
tragedy.     Its  seating  capacity  is  about  twelve  hundred. 

It  is  to  Mr.  Spaulding' s  careful  management  and  superin- 
tendence the  public  are  indebted  for  the  constant  good  order 
maintained  at  the  Olympic. 

Mr.  Pat  Short,  the  Treasurer  of  the  Olympic,  has  been 
identified  with  this  theatre  the  past  nine  years.  He  has  been 
of  great  service  to  the  managers,  while  the  public  have  always 
found  him  obliging  and  ready  to  do  the  best  possible  for  those 
who  patronize  the  house  ;  much  of  the  success  of  the  estab- 
lishment arises  from  the  integrity  and  efiiciency  shown  in  his 
long  business  connection  with  the  theatre. 

Thomas  C.  Noxon,  the  Scenic  Artist,  has  made  himself 
an  enviable  reputation  by  his  masterpieces  in  scenic  decorations  ; 

[56J 


THEATRES.  57 

he  has  always  been  a  painstaking  artist,  trne  to  nature  under 
gaslight,  and  many  of  his  pictures  are  valuable  works  of  art. 
In  spectacular  plays  Mr.  Noxon  is  especially  fine,  and  many  a 
piece  owes  its  reputation  in  St.  Louis  more  to  his  brush  than 
it  does  to  its  literary  excellence. 

Mr.  Noxon's  daughter,  Miss  Libbie  Noxon,  is  the  juvenile 
character  actress  connected  with  the  Olympic  ;  she  gives  promise 
of  a  bright  and  successful  career. 

Charlie  Creighton,  for  thirteen  years,  has  been  the  efficient 
and  polite  door-keeper  of  the  Olympic,  and  has  performed  his 
duties  so  well  as  to  receive  the  most  flattering  indorsement  of 
the  patrons  who  throng  the  theatre  on  Charley's  benefit  nights. 

DE  BAR'S  OPERA  HOUSE. 

When  the  late  Ben  De  Bar,  several  years  since,  assumed 
the  management  of  the  Opera  House  which  now  bears  his 
name,  he  had  to  create  a  public  sentiment  in  its  favor,  and  to 
accomplish  success  by  sheer  force  of  good  management  and 
genius.  St.  Louis  knows  how  admirably  he  has  succeeded,  so 
that  at  present  it  stands  as  not  only  the  largest,  but  one  of  the 
handsomest  theatres  in  the  countr^^ 

Ben  De  Bar  himself  was  a  success,  and  no  theatrical  enter- 
prise could  well  fail  where  his  genius  made  itself  felt  or  known. 

The  building  will  seat  two  thousand  people  ;  the  stage  is 
very  large  and  deep,  so  that  any  grand  spectacle  can  be  appro- 
priately produced.  Its  acoustic  properties  are  the  best  of  any 
building  in  the  city,  and  is  preferable  to  any  other  for  operas 
on  its  ample  boards.  Among  those  who  have  lent  of  their 
immortal  genius  to  De  Bar's  may  be  mentioned  the  great 
Salvini,  without  exception  the  greatest  actor  of  any  age  or 
country  in  his  peculiar  roles. 

Edwin  Booth  has  won  his  latest  and  most  perfect  triumphs 
in  this  theatre.  Charlotte  Cushman  here  gave  her  undying 
pictures  of  Elizabeth,  Catherine  and  Meg  INIerrilles.  Mary 
Anderson  at  De  Bar's  caught  the  mantle  which  had  just  fallen 
from  the  shoulders  of  the  dying  artist.  While  De  Bar  himself, 
as  Falstaft',  Avore  grandly  the  plume  of  championship  with 
Hackett,  his  onlv  rival. 


58  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  stock  company  at  the  theatre  has  always  been  an 
excellent  one,  and  the  plays  produced  have  equaled  in  artistic 
arrangement  any  theatre  on  the  continent. 

Mr.  John  W.  Norton,  since  the  decease  of  De  Bar,  has 
become  the  sole  lessee,  and  under  his  management  the  theatre 
has  maintained  its  high  character.  Mr.  Norton  for  a  long  time 
previously  having  occupied  the  position  of  stage  manager,  is 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the  possibilities  of  the  house. 
The  scenic  artist  is  Mr.  John  Watson,  a  gentleman  known  to 
every  one  by  the  beauty  of  his  paintings  and  the  marvelous 
effects  of  his  spectacular  scenes. 

The  Treasurer,  ^Max  H.  Fischer,  is  a  business  man  of 
ability,  and  fills  his  position  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public 
and  with  honor  to  himself.  Mr.  W.  J.  Slocum  is  the  able 
door-keeper  ;  the  press  and  public  are  too  well  acquainted  with 
him  and  his  services  to  need  praise  from  us.  Mr.  J.  C.  Brown 
the  second  door-keeper  is  also  a  valuable  and  faithful  official. 

The  Olympic  and  De  Bar's  are  fitted  with  convenient  fire- 
escapes,  so  that  in  an  alarm  of  fire  the  buildings  could  be 
emptied  in  three  minutes  ;  fortunately,  their  good  management 
hitherto  have  rendered  them  unnecessary. 

THE  THEATEE  COMIQUE, 

On  Pine  Street,  and  formerly  under  De  Bar's  management,  is 
now  conducted  by  Mr.  W.  C.  Mitchell,  who  endeavors  to  bring 
out  the  best  of  that  class  of  artists  known  as  variety  performers. 
The  song-and-dance  men,  clog  dancers,  trapeze  performers, 
ballets,  and  character  singers  find  on  the  boards  of  the  Comique 
very  great  patronage  and  success.  The  building  is  large  and 
roomy,  and  was  at  one  time  the  leading  place  of  amusement 
in  the  city 

THE  GLOBE  THEATRE, 

On  jNIorgan  Street,  recently  opened,  is  devoted  principally  to 
melodrama. 

On  this  stage  romance  and  sentiment  find  full  expression, 
and  Indian  hunters,  wild  beast  heroes,  and  wonderful  boys,  do 
their  daring  deeds,  eliciting  the  applause  of  hundreds  of 
young  people  who  nightly  throng  its  galleries. 


MUSIC  IN  ST.  LOUIS. 


Many  individual  and  collective  efforts  have  been  made  to 
elevate  the  art  of  music  in  St.  Louis.  All  have  failed,  inas- 
much as  the  object  sought  or  the  mark  aimed  at  was  never 
reached,  not  even  approximately,  although  the  Avrecks  of  each 
enterprise  have  left  here  and  there  a  solitary  survivor,  a  con- 
scientious devotee.  A  few  such  are  yet  strusfirlinfr  after  the 
unattainable — trying  to  introduce  true  music  to  the  people, 
and  to  instruct  the  people  to  like  only  the  best  music,  that  of 
the  deepest  and  most  lasting  sentiment  and  expression.  The 
Siingerfest  was  the  only  great  festival.  Good  music  was  then 
purely  produced  by  a  full  orchestra  and  chorus,  and  by  emi- 
nent soloists  ;  but  it  was  listened  to  rather  sensually,  and  we 
may  say,  fashionably,  instead  of  aesthetically  or  understand- 
ingly.  Its  efiects  were  only  felt  among  the  Germans.  Such 
a  festival  annually  could  not  fail  in  time  to  produce  the  very 
best  results,  and  would  be  a  permanent  school  for  artists  and 
amateurs. 

The  Philharmonic  Society,  from  1862  to  1870,  did  good 
work  under  the  direction  of  Sobolewski,  the  eccentric  but  able 
director,  and  also  under  Egmont  Froelich  it  flourished  well. 
It  seemed  to  die,  however,  a  natural  death  for  want  of  means. 
Although  our  music-loving  citizens  enjoyed  the  orchestra  of 
that  time,  now,  since  we  have  heard  Theodore  Thomas'  band, 
we  could  not  tolerate  the  old  Philharmonic  flddle-scrapmgs, 
flute-tootings  and  horn  blowings.  At  the  rehearsals  of  the 
Philharmonic,  the  instrumental  members  were  prompt  because 
they  were  paid.  With  a  few  exceptions,  the  vocalists  never 
attended  with  the  regularity  or  practiced  with  the  earnestness 
and  enthusiasm  necessary  for  the  fine  rendition  of  the  best 
compositions.  All  wanted  to  shine  at  the  concert,  but  all 
avoided  the    drudgery    of   the    rehearsal,  consequently    there 

[59] 


60  TOUR    OF    ST,    LOUIS. 

were  maii}^  failures,  many  very  tedious  and  dry  concerts. 
However,  this  society  accomplished  a  great  deal  for  music  in 
St.  Louis,  introducing,  although  imperfectly,  many  works 
new  to  us. 

The  Haydn  Orchestra,  composed  of  professionals,  with  a 
few  amateurs,  flourished  a  few  seasons.  It  gave  amusement 
more  than  instruction  to  amateurs  and  their  friends.  They 
performed  many  works  meritoriously,  but  failed  finally  for 
want  of  a  competent  director  and  funds.  The  many  sanger- 
bunds  and  German  vcreins,  such  as  the  Arion  and  Orpheus, 
have  existed  for  years  and  have  stated  rehearsals  and  concerts. 
They  generally  perform  good  music  in  a  heavy  manner,  which 
is  peculiar  to  most  German  singers. 

Theatrical  orchestras,  from  a  critical  stand-point,  have  al- 
wavs  been,  and  are  now,  abominal)le.  Rarely  can  one  hear  a 
good  piece  well  played.  The  main  reasons  for  this  are,  the 
niggardly  expenditure  by  the  theatre  proprietors  and  the  care- 
lessness of  directors,  who  are  .competent  to  do  better,  even 
with  the  contemptible  band  of  six,  eight  or  ten  men. 

Innumerable  amateur  concerts  on  the  "  I  tickle  you  and 
you  tickle  me  "  plan  are  given  every  season,  and  some  of  the 
performers  do  not  seem  to  know  we  live  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  that  we  have  heard  Lind  and  Sontag,  Albani,  Nils- 
son,  and  "  the  noble  army  of  singers,"  and  that  we  have  in 
musical  libraries  all  the  works  of  the  great  masters.  Why  do 
they  give  us  the  same  round  of  solos,  duets  and  choruses? 
Can  not  they  give  us  something  new? 

Many  soirees  and  receptions  have  been  given  to  advertise 
pupils  or  to  flatter  teachers,  but  without  elFect  in  the  right 
direction.  Church  choirs  in  many  instances  have  been  verj^ 
poor,  and  are  not  now  in  a  good  condition,  owing  almost  en- 
tirely to  the  inability  or  indisposition  of  churches  to  pay  for 
good  music.  It  must  be  conceded  that  within  thirty  years  the 
musical  taste  and  knowledge  of  St.  Louis  has  somewhat  im- 
proved. The  obstacles  which  exist,  and  have  always  existed, 
preventmg  our  reaching  a  high  musical  standard,  are  two  : 
the  love  of  money  in  nuisical  practitioners  and  patrons,  and 
jealousy.  Honest  emulation  is  healthy,  but  musicians'  jeal- 
ousy is  often  a  gangrenous  ulcer  of  disastrous   character.     It 


MUSIC    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  61 

is  this  which  has  broken  up  the  choirs,  has  disbanded  the 
musical  clubs  and  societies.  Each  and  every  nieml)er  seems 
too  greedy  of  praise,  of  prominence,  of  encores,  and  bouquets. 
Little  or  no  thought  of  the  correct  interpretation  or  under- 
standing of  the  music  is  entertained,  the  ruling  idea  seeming 
to  be  personal  vanity.  Alas  !  this  state  of  things  is  encour- 
aged and  kept  alive  by  the  audiences  formed  of  the  little  rings 
and  cliques  of  whic>h  each  singer  is  the  center. 

The  St.  Louis  Musical  Art  Association  was  orsranized  in 
February,  1870,  w^ith  thirty  members,  of  which  almost  every 
one  was  a  teacher  of  music.  There  were  besides  a  few  enthu- 
siastic amateurs  and  music  lovers.  To  the  credit  of  the  latter, 
be  it  said,  they  were  honest  and  earnest  members  ;  but  the 
professional  members,  all  wanted  to  be  presidents  and  directors. 

The  preliminary  meetings  were  well  attended.  When  the 
constitution  was  adopted  and  signed,  a  few  dropped  out ;  and 
when  the  officers  were  elected,  the  whole  thing  almost  ex- 
ploded. About  twenty  presidents  and  secretaries,  etc.,  left 
the  society. 

It  dragged  along  until  June,  1870,  when  a  little  energy 
was  infused  into  it  by  the  talk  of  a  Beethoven  centennial  cele- 
bration. Sobolewski,  an  honorary  member,  consented  to 
direct  a  grand  Beethoven  concert,  but  jealousy  broke  this  up  ; 
each  one  desired  the  first  place. 

The  programmes  of  two  concerts  were  made,  the  musicians 
engaged,  hall  hired,  tickets  sold,  expenses  paid  and  profits 
divided — all  upon  paper ;  and  so  it  yet  remains,  all  ready  for 
the  use  of  musicians  in  1900. 

Another  cause  of  the  present  condition  of  music  here  is  the 
lack  of  a  first-class  music  house.  We  have  had  many,  but  not 
one  conducted  on  a  broad  guage  and  a  liberal  plan. 

Twenty  years  ago,  five  musicians,  all  members  of  thea- 
tre orchestras,  met  weekly  for  their  own  amusement.  They 
played  the  best  chamber  music  of  Spohr,  Beethoven,  Haydn, 
and  Mozart.  Their  audience  was  seldom  more  than  one, 
and  that  one  remembers  to  this  day  the  rare  occasions.  The 
instruments  were  all  string — three  violins,  one  viola  and  one 
cello. 

Several  clubs  of  five  or  six  members,   for  the  purpose  of 


()2  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

practicing  chamber  music,  have  been  formed  ;  but  one  now 
exists.  These  have  nearly  always  been  very  select  in  their 
membership,  their  selections  and  their  audiences.  In  these 
small  companies  the  "  sacred  fire  "  has  been  kept  burning, 
but  the  light  is  too  small  and  too  much  hidden  to  do  great 
good. 

Amons:  the  old  music  teachers  we  may  name  Bode,  Fuchs, 
Walther,  Robyn  Brothers,  Neunstiel  and  Ileuzel.  Those 
prominent  at  present  are  Bowman,  Gilsinn,  E.  &  C.  Froelich, 
North,  Mrs.  Brainerd,  Malmene,  Waldauer,  etc.  Prof.  E.  M. 
Bowman,  organist  at  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  stands 
high  among  old  lovers  of  good  music  in  the  West,  and  to  him 
very  largely  is  owing  the  marked  improvement  in  choir  music 
in  St.  Louis  of  late  years.  The  others  named  also  contribute 
much  to  elevate  and  purify  the  public  taste.  Quite  an  impulse 
has  been  given  to  organ  playing,  by  the  tine  performances  of 
Prof.  Creswold  ;  and  our  young  organists  are  no  longer  satis- 
fied with  such  performances  as  we  have  had  in  the  past,  but  are 
striving  to  teach  a  higher  standard  and  greater  degree  of  ex- 
cellence. In  a  similar  artistic  manner  performers  on  other 
instruments,  and  with  the  voice,  could,  by  their  examples, 
stimulate  and  instruct  us. 

There  are  many  good  pianists,  violinists,  and  performers 
on  other  instruments,  but  scarcely  one  conscientious  artist, 
not  one  enthusiastic  devotee.  There  are  those  who  aspire  to 
be  such,  but  fail,  owing  to  lack  of  time,  of  early  and  thorough 
musical  instruction,  and  to  the  want  of  technical  skill,  (^tech- 
nique) and  theoretical  knowledge. 

The  Oratario  and  amateur  operatic  societies  have  rendered 
barely  passable  some  excellent  music.  As  usual,  indiscrimi- 
nate praise,  petty  factions  and  envy  disrupted  them.  The 
Amphions,  a  glee  club  of  society  young  men,  flourished  for  a 
few  years.  It  has  gradually  grown  weaker  in  numbers  and 
execution.  They  lacked  very  much  in  musical  cohesive  force. 
The  Orpheus,  male  quartette,  sang  at  the  old  Philharmonic 
concerts,  and  later  rendered  some  good  pieces  quite  smoothly 
and  creditably.  Their  field  was  too  small  to  wield  much 
influence. 

By  far  the  best  thing  musicallv  that  St.  Louis  has  ever 


MUSIC    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  63 

enjoyed,  or,  we  should  sa^-,  had  opportunity  to  enjoy,  was 
Habehnann's  German  Opera  Troupe.  At  the  Apollo  Theater, 
for  two  years  or  more,  this  troupe  produced  a  variety  of  operas 
greater  than  that  furnished  by  all  the  troupes  that  ever  visited 
St.  Louis.  We  doul)t  if  in  any  oit}"  in  this  country  so  many 
of  the  best  works  Avere  given.  Beethoven's  Fidelio,  Mozart's 
Don  Giovanni,  Magic  Flute  and  Figaro,  Auber's  Fra  Diavolo 
and  Masaniello,  Weber's  Freischlitz,  Rossini's  Barbier, 
Gounod's  Faust,  Wagner's  Tannhiiuser,  Nicholais'  Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor,  Offenbach's  Opera  Bouffe,  besides  many 
selections  from  the  German  comic  opera,  the  French  sensa- 
tional, and  the  Italian  sentimental  schools.  Over  forty  differ- 
ent works  were  presented,  and  many  were  repeated  six  times 
or  more.  The  orchestra  was  never  good  ;  the  individual  mem- 
bers never  felt  the  esprit  du  corps  necessary  to  a  correct  and 
artistic  performance.  We  think  their  minds  were  in  a  contin- 
ual conflict  between  art  and  nature.  But  in  spite  of  all  this 
the  music  was  a  treat  and  a  rare  one  to  hear.  Poor  Schram, 
an  able,  nervous,  fierj^  conductor,  wore  out  his  life  trying  to 
direct  the  Apollo  orchestra.  Schuler  took  it  easy,  and  Ernesti- 
noff  labored  hard.  •  Santa  merely  wriggled  his  little  baton, 
and  the  men  played  without  looking  at  him,  save  once  when 
he  sat  down  on  his  fiddle. 

These  tri-weekly  entertainments  were  patronized  grudgingly 
by  the  Germans,  liberally  by  the  Jews,  and  hardly  at  all  by 
the  Americans.  A  little  circle  of  music  lovers,  who  knew  of 
the  treat  awaiting  them  in  the  small  theatre  attached  to  the 
Apollo  beer-garden,  visited  there  often.  But  it  Avas  not  in  the 
way  of  fashion  ;  it  was  not  pretentiously  heralded,  pomj^ously 
and  falsely  described  ;  the  seats  were  not  held  at  three  dollars 
and  four  dollars  So,  as  it  was  not  the  fashionable  thing  to 
go  there,  Americans  Avithheld  their  support,  but  threw  away 
their  dollars  freely  to  every  traveling  cheat  or  musical  mounte- 
bank. 

Yes,  the  German  Opera  failed.  What  a  pity  !  Our  citi- 
zens know  not  what  they  missed,  except  the  fcAV  who  Avent 
there  nightl}^  There  has  never  been  such  a  Faust  here  as 
Habelmann,  and  no  Mephistopheles  like  Fraunosch,  with  the 
exception  of  Hermann.  What  a  rollicking  madcap  Mrs.  Schuler 


64  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

(Yaeger)  was  in  opera  boufte  !  What  a  surprise  to  sec  her 
excellent  performance  of  the  serious  part  of  Fidelio,  although 
laboring  under  physical  disabilities  !  Was  there  ever  a  more 
comical  fellow  than  Hubsch?  La  Fontaine  and  wife,  D'Zuiba, 
Mrs.  Schram,  Miss  Roemer,  Madame  Litchman  and  Carl 
Bernard,  they  all  did  their  parts  with  a  will  and  atrue  concep- 
tion of  their  work.  Occasional  mishaps  did  not  mar  the  en- 
joyment. The  opera  was  not  always  a  new  one,  but  was 
always  decent,  orderly  and  critical. 

So  much  for  the  past  and  present  condition  of  musical  art 
in  St.  Louis.  We  have  endeavored  to  portray  faithfully  its 
past  history,  and  while  sharply  criticizing  much  that  is  bad, 
imperfect,  and  unworthy  of  admiration,  we  feel  desirous  of 
seeing  our  city  become  what  its  size  and  importance  ought  to 
give  it :  the  great  center  for  all  that  is  grand  and  nbble  in  the 
art. 

The  press  has  done  much  to  bring  artists  and  music  of 
all  grades  into  notice,  and  undoubtedly  has  in  some  manner 
aided  in  the  general  development  of  music,  with  other  things  ; 
but  it  could  do  much  more.  It  is  such  a  power  that  it  canto- 
day  reform  the  world,  by  creating  social,  political,  financial, 
and  religious  revolutions.  What,  then,  could  it  not  do  with 
the  arts? 


ART  IN  ST.  LOUIS. 


Art  in  St.  Louis  may  be  said  to  be  in  a  flourishing  condi- 
tion— inasmuch  as  the  enthusiasm  manifested  by  those  inter- 
ested in  it  is  very  great — and  yet  backward  in  comparison 
with  her  sister  cities  in  the  East.  Judging  from  her  popuhx- 
tion  and  wealth,  St.  Louis  ought  to  be  able  to  boast  of  more 
art  treasures  than  she  has,  and  could  certainly  afford  to 
extend  a  greater  patronage  to  the  fostering  of  art  in  our  midst. 
But  when  we  analyze  her  people,  the  cause  is  apparent.  Here 
is  a  mixed  population,  mostly  foreign-born — many  of  a  low 
grade  socially,  having  little  or  no  knowledge  of  art,  and  very 
little  taste  in  that  direction.  But  people  need  to  be  educated 
to  an  appreciation  of  art ;  and  as  time  advances  we  hope  for 
much  improvement.  We  have  been  so  intent  on  money- 
makino;  that  aesthetic  culture  has  been  sacrificed  to  that  end. 

If  the  wealthy  men  of  St.  Louis  will  only  follow  the 
example  of  such  in  our  Eastern  cities,  and  in  Europe,  we 
believe  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  mass  of  the  people  will 
take  a  decided  interest  in  all  that  appertains  to  art  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  beautiful.  Li  Paris,  where  the  Louvre  is 
open  to  the  public,  on  Sunday  it  is  crowded  with  working 
men. 

Judging  from  present  indications,  we  shall  see  marked 
improvement  in  art  here  within  the  next  few  years.  Persons 
outside  of  art  circles  little  know  what  strenuous  elTorts  are 
being  made  to  place  St.  Louis  on  an  equal  footing  with  other 
cities.  There  are  gentlemen  here  who  are  entering  into  the 
movement  with  an  energy  and  perseverance,  which,  if  helped 
by  the  wealthy  portion  of  our  citizens,  can  not  fail  to  bring 
about  the  desired  result.     There  is   no  reason  why  this  city 

5  165] 


66  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

should  not  be  a  great  art  center  as  well  as  a  great  commercial 
metropolis  ;  and  at  present  there  is  really  more  culture  here  in 
that  direction  than  is  generally  imagined.  Not  a  few  of  our 
citizens  have  some  line  private  collections  ; '  and  the  following 
brief  sketches  of  art  education  at  Washington  University,  the 
St.  Louis  Sketch  Club,  School  of  Art  and  Design,  etc.,  with 
notices  of  some  of  the  most  prominent  artists,  will  give  a 
general  idea  of  the  present  condition  of  art  in  this  city. 


ART  AT  WASHINGTON  UNIVERSITY. 

We  can  not  give  the  space  to  the  department  of  art  at  the 
University  that  it  really  deserves.  Its  system  is  second  to 
none  in  this  country,  and  is  modeled  after  the  various  schools 
of  art  and  design  and  industrial  schools  of  Great  Britain  and 
France.  It  is  in  the  hands  of  thoroughly  competent  masters, 
who  have  given  those  schools  careful  personal  examination, 
and  who  have  had  experience  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

For  the  past  four  years  this  department  has  been  under 
the  direct  management  of  Prof.  C.  H.  Ives,  and  his  indefati- 
gable energy,  together  with  the  material  services  rendered  by 
his  assistants,  have  raised  the  school  to  a  degree  of  proficiency 
never  before  experienced.  Prof.  Ives  has  twice  visited  Europe, 
and  intends  going  again,  especially  to  study  the  workings  of 
similar  institutions  there. 

The  pupils  receive  a  course  of  instruction  that  will  fit  them 
either  to  follow  art  as  a  profession,  or  an  accomplishment — 
as  designers,  architects,  teachers,  etc.  Pupils  may  take  any 
section  of  the  course,  either  drawing,  modeling,  ornamenting, 
painting,  designing,  or  wood  engraving. 

Attention  is  particularly  given  to  the  early  training  of 
pupils.  They  are  well  grounded  in  elementary  work  before 
being  allowed  to  proceed  with  the  higher  branches.  In  this 
respect  the  discipline  is  most  thorough.  Throughout  the 
pupils  receive  systematic  instruction  in  a  knowledge  of  the 
principles  and  practice  of  art  and  design. 

Ladies  have  special  class-rooms  set  apart  for  them,  and 
enjoy  the  same  advantasres  as  other  students. 


ART    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  67 

"Wood  carving  has  been  lately  introduced  under  the  super- 
vision of  Miss  Calista  Halsey,  who  has  done  so  much  in  this 
department  for  the  School  of  Design. 

Connected  with  the  art  department  is  a  night  class  for 
those  who  are  unable  to  attend  during  the  day.  The  instruc- 
tion is  given  gratuitously,  and  it  has  been  well  attended,  the 
average  number  of  pupils  being  sixty. 

Another  worthy  feature  well  calculated  to  arouse  an  inter- 
est in  art  is.  the  "Art  Lecture  Course,"  given  before  the 
evening* class,  the  audience  varying  from  one  to  four  hundred. 


THE  ST.  LOUIS  SKETCH  CLUB. 

Among  the  latest  additions  to  the  artistic  circles,  and  one 
which  has  long  been  wanting,  is  the  "  St.  Louis  Sketch  Club  " 
— Mr.  J.  M.  Tracy,  President.  It  is  composed  of  the  promi- 
nent artists  and  amateurs  of  the  city,  and  has  already  acquired 
a  well-merited  local  notoriety.  It  is  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  encouraging  originality,  and  to  give  scope  to  the  creative 
faculties  ;  also  to  promote  sociability  and  the  interchange  of 
ideas  among  members  of  the  profession. 

The  club  holds  its  regular  meetings  the  tirst  and  second 
Wednesdays  in  every  month.  Each  member  in  turn  announces 
a  subject  to  be  illustrated,  and  entertains  the  club.  The 
sketches,  which  form  a  very  interesting  collection,  then  be- 
come the  property  of  the  host. 

As  originality  is  the  foundation-stone  of  its  existence, 
plagiarizing  is  not  permissible  ;  any  member  guilty  of  such  a 
misdemeanor  is  expelled  ;  consequently,  when  the  sketches  are 
presented,  each  member  furnishes  his  or  her  conception  of 
what  best  illustrates  the  subject. 

In  order  to  become  a  member  of  the  club,  it  is  necessary 
to  produce  an  original  sketch,  either  in  oil,  water  color,  india 
ink,  pencil,  crayon,  charcoal,  pen  and  ink,  or  clay,  representing 
the  subject  chosen  by  the  club,  and  should  the  effort  be  ap- 
proved by  the  directors,  the  applicant  is  enrolled  as  a  member. 
The  sketches  can  generally  be  found  on  exhibition  the  day  after 
the  regular  meeting,  at  Hardino^'s  Gallerv  on  Olive  Street. 


68  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

THE  ST.  LOUIS  SCHOOL  OF  ART  AND  DESIGN. 

The  St.  Louis  School  of  Art  and  Design  is  another  evidence 
of  the  Q-rowth  of  assthetic  culture  in  St.  Louis. 

This  sciiool  is  located  in  the  granite  building  at  the  corner 
of  JFourth  and  Market  streets.  It  was  incorporated  in  1877, 
and  owes  its  success  to  the  indefatigable  efforts  of  a  prominent 
St.  Louis  lady — Mrs.  John  B.  Henderson.  It  may  be  said  to 
be  purely  a  woman's  institution,  and  was  organized  to  encour- 
age the  application  of  art  to  industry.  It  is  modeled  some- 
what after  the  celebrated  South  Kensington  School  of  Art  and 
Design,  in  England,  which  has  done  so  much  for  the  industrial 
arts  of  that  country.  Here  pupils  are  taught  to  draw  from 
the  antique,  the  English  school  of  water-color  drawing, 
painting  in  oil,  wood  carving,  porcelain  painting,  modeling, 
and  decorative  needlework. 

At  a  late  exhibition  given  by  this  school  in  the  early  part 
of  June  of  this  year,  the  display  was  exceedingly  tine.  The 
most  prominent  feature  wais  the  exhibit  of  wood-carving.  We 
noticed  in  this  department  a  wine  cupboard,  and  also  two 
cabinets — one  by  Mrs.  Henderson,  and  the  other  by  Mrs. 
Blaisdell,  that  merited  quite  a  favorable  criticism  from  con- 
noisseurs in  this  line.  Certainly  this  department  reflects  con- 
siderable credit  both  on  the  pupils  and  teacher.  The  workman- 
ship has  been  spoken  of  in  the  East  in  very  flattering  terms  ; 
and  we  would  advise  St.  Louisans,  and  those  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, when  they  wish  to  adorn  their  drawing-rooms  or  parlors 
with  something  original  and  unique  in  the  way  of  a  cabinet,, 
bracket,  cupboard,  etc.,  to  call  at  the  School  of  Design. 


ST.  LOUIS  ACADEMY  OF  FINE  ARTS. 

To  the  lately  organized  "Academy  of  Fine  Arts"  St.  Louis 
must  look  as  the  only  institution  in  the  city  capable  of  success- 
fully advancing  her  art  interests.  What  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce has  done  for  her  industrial  enterprise,  the  "Academy 
of  Fine  Arts"  proposes  to  do  for  us  in  all  that  appertains  to 
art.     Such  an  institution  has  been  needed  in  St.  Louis  for 


ART    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  69 

years,  and  now  that  we  are  in  a  fair  way  to  have  one  estab- 
lished on  a  firm  and  solid  basis,  we  may  expect  that  art  hero 
will  shortly  receive  an  impetus  it  never  before  experienced. 

The  prominent  business  men  and  artists  findino-  somethin*^ 
was  necessary  to  stimulate  art  among  the  masses,  resolved  to 
organize  the  "St.  Louis  Academy  of  Fine  Arts."  They  arc 
determined  St.  Louis  shall  no  longer  occupy  the  backward  po- 
sition she  has  done  heretofore,  but  shall  make  a  shovvin""  for 
herself  that  will  redound  to  her  credit  and  honor  as  one  of  the 
great  art  cities  of  the  world. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  draw  attention  to  what  similar  institu- 
tions have  done  for  the  cities  of  the  Old  World.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  the  beautiful,  and  the  development  of  a3sthetic  culture, 
is  a  necessity  in  every  community.  The  "St.  Louis  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts"  will  endeavor  to  promote  our  welfare  to  that 
«nd.  An  article  in  their  constitution,  which  fully  expresses  its 
aims,  reads  as  follows  :  "The  object  of  this  Association  shall 
be  the  advancement  of  art,  in  all  its  departments  ;  and  the 
promotion  of  aesthetic  culture,  by  social  intercourse,  instruc- 
tion in  art,  public  receptions  and  exhibitions  of  works  of  art." 
Give  them  the  means  and  we  shall  soon  be  "breathing  an  at- 
mosphere of  art." 

The  gentlemen  who  have  charge  of  this  noble  work  pro- 
pose to  erect  a  suitable  academy  building,  containing  galleries 
for  public  exhibitions,  class-rooms  for  instructional  work,  and 
the  proper  equipments  for  the  same  ;  also,  to  establish  a  per- 
manent art  gallery,  and  an  annual  exhibition. 

Over  forty  members  have  already  become  life  members, 
and  it  is  desired  to  increase  the  life  membership  to  two  hun- 
dred. All  who  are  lovers  of  art,  and  wish  to  promote  so  laud- 
able an  enterprise  as  this,  should  interest  themselves  directly 
in  the  work.  It  will  certainly,  in  the  end,  be  one  of  the  finest 
institutions  of  which  our  city  can  boast. 

A.  J.  CONANT. 

Among  the  early  settlers  of  this  country  were  the  ancestors 
of  the  subject  of  our  sketch,  who,  in  1624,  came  over  from 
England,  settling  in  Massachusetts.     Alban  Jasper  Conant  was 


70  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

born  in  1821,  at  Chelsea,  Orange  County,  Vermont.  His 
early  life  was  spent  in  working  on  a  farm  with  his  father,  who 
was  by  trade  a  house  and  sign  painter.  Having  a  great  de- 
sire for  knowledge,  he  embraced  every  opportunity  for  study, 
and  last  became  convinced  that  he  was  not  in  his  proper  sphere 
of  action.  At  eighteen  he  entered  Randolph  Academy.  While 
there  he  wrote  considerable  for  the  country  newspapers,  and 
by  the  numerous  sketches  he  made,  and  portraits  of  friends 
which  he  painted,  first  revealed  the  great  talent  he  possessed. 
Being  tilled  with  the  true  artistic  spirit,  the  love  of  the  beauti- 
ful, and  that  appreciation  of  nature  which  an  artist  only  can 
fully  realize,  it  was  a  great  trial  for  him  to  be  forced  to  forego 
his  art  studies  for  Avant  of  means.  He  devoted  himself  to 
teachins:  music  to  ffain  the  needed  funds.  Though  he  knew 
but  little  of  artists,  and  the  world  of  art  in  which  they  lived, 
yet  he  felt  that  to  be  his  true  vocation,  and  firmly  resolved  to 
pursue  it. 

He  went  to  New  York  City  in  1 844  ;  there  he  studied  dili- 
gently and  received  much  encouragement  from  friends,  among 
them  Henry  Inman.  After  twelve  3'ears  of  work  in  that  and 
other  cities  of  New  York,  he  came  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  has 
done  all  in  his  power  to  create  the  desire  for  artistic  culture 
among  the  people,  and  interested  himself  in  all  plans  for  art 
improvement. 

,  In  conjunction  with  other  artists  he  established  the  "West- 
ern Academy  of  Art"  here  in  1860,  but,  like  many  similar  in- 
stitutions, it  sufiered  death  during  the  war,  and  many  of  its 
treasures  were  lost. 

Mr.  Conant  A^ery  soon  established  his  reputation  in  St. 
Louis  as  a  portrait  painter,  having  no  superior  in  the  city,  and 
many  of  our  prominent  citizens  have  sat  for  him  ;  among  them 
may  be  mentioned  J.  J.  Roe,  Henry  and  Edgar  Ames,  Von 
Phul,  and  Wm.  M.  McPherson. 

During  the  Avar  Mr.  Conant  was  in  the  East,  and  there 
painted  the  portrait  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Bates,  who,  at  that 
time,  was   Attorney-General.      He    also    painted   Edwin   M. 
Stanton  and  Jas.  B.  Eads,  while  his  celebrated  bust  portrait  of 
Lincoln  won  for  him  fresh  laurels. 

Since  the  war  he  has  resided  in  St.  Louis,  Avhere  he  occupies 


AKT    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  71 

a  high  position  in  art  society.  Mr.  Conaut  lectures  on  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  art  before  colleges,  seminaries,  etc.  He 
is  much  interested  in  scientific  subjects,  and  has  made  a  study 
of  the  prehistoric  people  of  this  country,  with  what  success 
the  great  number  of  relics  contained  in  his  studio  will  testify, 
and  especially  the  chapters  on  archieology  he  has  recently 
contributed  to  the  new  "  Commonwealth  of  Missouri."  A 
recent  paper  on  the  subject  read  before  the  St.  Louis  Academy 
of  Science,  has  attracted  the  attention  of  foreign  societies  and 
has  been  translated  into  the  German,  French,  and  Danish  lan- 
guages. 

St.  Louis  may  well  feel  proud  of  an  artist  of  Mr.  Conant's 
ability,  standing  as  he  does  at  the  top  of  his  profession  here, 
and  in  his  particular  line  having  but  few  rivals,  even  in  America. 


GEO.  C.  EICHBAUM. 

Mr.  Eichbaum  is  an  artist  of  no  ordinary  ability.  He  came 
here  from  Pittsburgh  in  1859,  and  has  been  an  untirino-  work- 
man  in  his  line  ever  since.  His  characteristic  modesty  and 
unassuming  style  has  been  grouped  with  a  conscientious  and 
zealous  devotion  to  his  work.  Gradually  he  has  worked  his 
way  into  a  large  place  among  the  lovers  of  art.  His  studio  is 
room  No.  45,  Insurance  Exchange,  corner  of  Olive  and  Fifth 
streets. 

His  specialty  is  portrait  painting,  and  has  at  times  pro- 
duced some  (/enre  pictures  indicating  current  events  of  the  day. 

A  recent  portrait  of  Miss  Josie  McKellops,  painted  ni  the 
character  of  Lady  Gay  Spanker,  has  been  on  exhibition  and 
has  gained  the  warmest  approbation  from  those  who  have  seen 
it.  His  "Defeated  Candidate"  was  his  first  happy  hit  outside 
of  the  line  of  ordinary  portrait  painting.  It  w^as  sent  to  the 
National  Academy  of  Design  in  New  York  and  there  sold  for 
a  handsome  figure.  It  received  a  most  flattering  notice  in  the 
Art  Journal  as  a  piece  of  undoubted  merit.  The  subject  was 
so  unique  and  so  true  to  political  life  that  it  was  universally 
admired  by  those  Avho  saw  it. 

Recent  portraits  of  Hon.  John  B.   Henderson  and  Prof. 


72  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Reilly  have  received  special  attention  ;  and  three  portraits  of 
Jos.  Garneau's  children  have  done  much  to  bring  him  into 
public  notice  as  an  artist  whose  talent  is  worthy  of  favorable 
recoirnition.  He  is  a  member  of  the  various  art  societies  of 
the  city,  and  is  about  to  devote  some  months  abroad  among 
the  galleries  of  the  Old  World, 


JOSEPH  R.  MEEKER. 

Mr.  Meeker,  in  1845,  began'  in  New  York  City,  drawing 
from  casts,  in  order  to  gain  a  scholarship  in  the  Academy 
of  Design.  The  drawings  were  accepted,  and  that  winter 
found  him  hard  at  work  in  the  antique  class.  At  that  time, 
the  Nestor  of  American  landscape  painters,  A.  B.  Durand, 
was  President  of  the  Academy.  It  was  from  studying  his 
works  that  he  formed  his  style,  and  he  has  seldom  departed 
from  those  sober,  quiet  eifects,  which  arc  so  gratifying  to  the 
educated  eye.  He  also  turned  his  attention  to  portrait  paint- 
ing, and  spent  much  time  in  the  studio  of  the  great  artist 
Elliot,  gaining  much  valuable  information  from  him. 

In  1859  he  started  on  a  tour  through  a  dozen  large  cities, 
to  find  a  better  field  for  art.  On  arriving  at  St.  Louis,  he 
resolved  to  set  up  his  easel,  finding  Wimar,  Noble,  Boyle, 
Cogswell,  De  Franca  and  Conant  all  at  work,  and  seemingly 
prosperous.  Mr.  Meeker  met  with  considerable  encourage- 
ment until  the  war  broke  out,  when  all  professions,  especially 
that  of  the  artist,  being  at  a  low  ebb,  he  ])ecame  a  paymaster 
in  the  United  States  navy,  which  position  he  retained  for 
four  years.  It  was  during  this  time  that  he  had  opportunities 
for  making  those  sketches  of  the  Southern  swamp  scenery 
that  have  made  his  name  so  well  known. 

Since  the  close  of  the  war,  Mr.  Meeker  has  steadily  worked 
at  his  profession,  only  leaving  the  city  occasionally  during  the 
summer  months  to  get  material  for  new  pictures.  His  Avorks 
illustrating  Southern  scenery  first  brought  him  into  prominence 
in  St.  Louis.  The  taste  for  art  had  not  been  cultivated  to  any 
considerable  extent  here  ;  but  there  were  a  few  who  were  will- 
ing to  give  remunerative  prices  for  such  pictures.     He  did  not 


ART    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  73 

confine  himself  to  swamp  scenes,  but  took  subjects  nearer 
home,  illustrating  the  scenery  of  Southeastern  Missouri,  the 
fine,  bluff  banks  of  the  Osage  and  Gasconade  rivers,  and  the 
great  lead  regions  of  the  Southwest. 

Mr.  jNlceker's  pictures  have  formed  a  conspicuous  feature 
in  every  art  exhibition  which  has  taken  place  in  St.  Louis 
during  the  seventeen  years  he  has  resided  here.  Each  succes- 
sive year  has  shown  marked  improvement  in  his  execution  and 
coloring,  and  each  year  has  brought  him  new  friends  and  ad- 
mirers. As  the  years  went  on,  he  chose  a  wider  range  of 
subjects,  taking  in  the  Upper  as  well  as  the  Lower  Mississippi, 
the  mountains  of  New  England  and  the  coast  of  Maine,  with 
the  lakes  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  His  landscapes  have 
gone  one  by  one  into  private  houses  both  East  and  West,  and 
contribute  their  share  towards  educating  and  refining  the  tastes 
of  old  and  young. 

JOHN   M.  TRACY. 

One  of  the  latest  acquisitions  to  the  profession  in  St.  Louis 
is  Mr.  J.  M.  Tracy,  an  American  artist  of  the  modern  French 
school.  He  has  been  painting  for  the  past  ten  years  in 
Europe,  but  has  concluded  to  make  St.  Louis  his  home.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  Sketch 
Club,  Art  Society,  etc. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  he  sailed  for  Europe,  and  deter- 
mined to  adopt  the  school  to  which  he  now  belongs.  He  was 
received  as  a  pupil  of  Adolphe  Yoon,  the  great  painter  of  bat- 
tles, and  by  his  advice  entered  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  and 
remained  under  the  tuition  of  M.  Pils,  the  historical  painter, 
until  the  death  of  that  artist.  He  then  entered  the  studio  of 
Carolus  Duran,  the  greatest  of  modern  portrait  painters,  where 
he  remained  until  1877.  During  the  Franco-Prussian  war 
Mr.  Tracy  went  to  California  and  made  many  studies  of  the 
wonderful  scenery  of  that  country.  He  returned  to  Paris,  and 
his  works  were  well  received  at  the  Salon,  and  also  at  the 
various  provincial  exhibitions.  Of  those  in  America,  two  of 
the  best  are  in  California.  One,  the  "Battle  of  Murfrees- 
boro  ;"  the  other,  a  "  Hunt  in  the  Forest  of  Fontaineblcau  ;" 


74  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

both  have  been  greatly  admired.  In  St.  Louis  there  are  two 
hirge  landscapes  :  "  Mt.  Diable,  Cal.,"  owned  by  J.  P.  Colby, 
and  the  "  Yosemito  Valley,"  belonging  to  Hudson  E.  Bridge. 
His  special  forte,  however,  seems  to  be  in  historical  and 
landscape  painting.  His  studio,  which  is  always  open  to 
visitors,  is  at  1102  Olive  Street,  and  its  walls  are  covered  with 
sketches  made  in  this  country  and  in  Europe. 


PAUL  E.   HARNEY. 

This  gentleman  is  best  known  hci'c  by  the  following  works  : 
The  picture  of  Howard  S.  Kretschmar,  the  sculptor,  painted 
entirely  in  the  feeling  of  the  Munich  school,  and  exhibited  at 
the  late  Loan  Exhibition,  where  it  received  many  well-merited 
criticisms.  Another,  "A  Fat  Friar  Returning  from  a  Begging 
Expedition,"  the  property  of  Hon.  J.  H.  Terry,  shows  the 
power  of  this  artist  in  handling  subjects  of  this  class. 

Mr.  J.  K.  Cummings,  of  the  St.  Louis  Glass  Works,,  has 
two  or  three  from  Mr.  Harney's  studio.  On  exhibition  in 
Harding's  gallery  is  another  picture,  a  very  fine  piece  of  work, 
called  "A  Nun  at  her  Devotions."  At  the  time  of  writing  he 
has  on  his  easel  "Two  Children  in  a  Street  in  Rome,"  a  very 
neat  Italian  study,  full  of  feeling,  which,  when  finished,  will 
command  attention.  Another  work  we  can  not  pass  over  is  a 
"Street  Scene  in  Cairo,"  the  propert}'  of  Prof.  Ives,  of  Wash- 
ington University. 

Mr.  Harney  has  spent  several  years  of  study  in  Europe, 
especially  in  Munich.  He  is  a  member  of  the  St.  Louis 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  has  charge  of  a  department  at  the 
School  of  Design,  and  has  interested  himself  largely  in  art 
matters  in  the  city. 

Mr.  Paul  E.  Harney,  Avell  known  in  art  circles,  has  charge  of 
a  class  studying  from  the  antique,  and  judging  from  the  col- 
lection of  drawings  exhibited  by  the  pupils,  they  show  the 
careful  training  thev  have  undergone  throuo-h  his  o:uidance. 

The  department  of  oil  painting  is  entrusted  to  Mr.  Roy 
Robertson,  who  also  instructs  a  class  in  the  fundamental  and 
more  advanced  stages   of    design   as  applied  to  carving  and 


ART    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  75 

decoration .  Porcelain  painting  is  quite  a  favorite  study  with  the 
ladies,  and  their  ijroductions  have  been  much  admired.  There 
are  some  really  very  fine  specimens  of  work  in  this  depart- 
ment that  will  bear  close  examination,  and  others  again  below 
the  average. 

We  noticed  at  their  late  exhibit  that  the  works  of  Mrs. 
Henderson,  Miss  Mofiit,  and  several  others,  could  only  have 
been  produced  by  careful  study  and  perseverance,  in  addition 
to  a  natural  talent  in  this  direction. 


CARL  GUTHERZ. 

His  studio  is  in  Washington  University,  where  he  has 
charge  of  the  department  devoted  to  painting ;  he  particu- 
larly excels  in  ideal  subjects.  The  full  length  portrait  of 
Miss  Nellie  Hazeltine,  by  this  artist,  firmly  established  his 
reputation  in  St.  Louis.  This  picture,  when  on  exhibition 
at  Pettes  &,  Leathe's,  was  viewed  by  thousands,  receiving 
at  the  time  most  flattering  criticisms  from  the  press.  It  con- 
vinced St.  Louisans  that  they  had  an  artist  in  their  midst 
of  no  mean  capabilities,  whose  work  was  full  of  promise,  and 
bespoke  a  well-merited  patronage  in  the  future. 


FRANK   WINCHESTER. 

This  artist  is  known  for  his  exquisite  cameo  cuttings. 
Mr.  Frank  Winchester,  is  one  of  three  who  stand  pre-emi- 
nent in  this  department  of  art  in  the  United  States.  His 
portraits  of  eminent  St.  Louisans  are  marvels  of  beauty  in 
this  respect.  In  1850  the  Franklin  Institute  of  Philadelphia 
voted  him  a  gold  medal  for  his  contributions  to  this  branch  of 
the  fine  arts.  His  works  are  widely  scattered  in  the  hands  of 
connoisseurs,  and  are  highly  prized. 

Since  the  perfection  of  the  art  of  photography  the  work  of 
the  artist  in  cameo  portraiture  has  been  greatly  advanced,  as 
by  the  aid  of  the  magnifjang  glass  the  most  delicate  outlines 
are  given,  so  as  to  produce  startling  elFects.  In  this  respect 
the  work  of  Mr.  Winchester  surpasses  that  of  all  others.     As 


76  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

a  branch  of  art  of  the  highest  merit  it  is  strange  that  so  little 
is  really  known  of  its  opportunities  in  St.  Louis. 

Mr.  Winchester  is  so  devoted  to  his  work,  and  withal,  so 
retiring  and  modest,  that  he  takes  no  pains  to  bring  his  works 
before  the  mass  of  our  cultured  citizens,  and  but  for  this  short 
sketch,  few  would  know  that  we  have  in  our  midst  perhaps  the 
'srreatcst  artist  in  cameo  portraiture  on  this  continent. 

He  may  be  found  at  Scholten's,  No.  920  Olive  Street. 


W.  L.  MARPLE. 

Mr.  Marple,  lately  from  California,  has  already  won  his 
laurels  here,  through  his  display  in  the  late  Loan  Exhibition 
at  the  Public  School  Library.  His  Californian  and  tropical 
scenery,  and  his  sunsets,  found  him  many  warm  admirers. 
Since  then  he  has  been  very  busy  executing  orders  for  similar 
works. 


HARRY   CHASE. 

There  is  one  St.  Louis  artist  whom  we  can  not  pass  over — 
Harry  Chase.  He  is  now  studying  in  Europe,  and  as  a  marine 
painter  has  as  Ijright  a  future  before  him  as  any  artist  could 
wish.  His  works  have  lately  been  received  at  the  Salon,  and 
judging  from  the  number  he  sends  home,  he  must  be  both  a 
hard  and  earnest  worker — one  to  whom  St.  Louis  will  one  daj 
point  with  pride. 

THEO.    RABUSKA, 

In  the  "black  and  white  line,"  has  few  rivals.  Some  of  the 
finest  charcoal  and  crayon  portraits  that  have  ever  been  pro- 
duced m  this  city  have  come  from  his  studio.  This  is  attested 
by  the  large  share  of  patronage  that  has  fallen  to  him,  and 
the  thorough  appreciation  his  pictures  have  met  with  every- 
where. His  studio  IS  at  room  53  Insurance  Exchange  build- 
ins. 


ART    IN    ST.    LOUIS.  77 

HO'vVARD   S.  KRETSCHMAR.— ScuLi>TOR. 

Among  the  artists  of  St.  Louis,  none  rank  higher  than  Mr. 
Kretschmar.  He  early  displayed  signs  of  great  a])ility  in  the 
phistic  art,  and  nearly  six  years  ago,  after  executing  several 
bust  portraits,  he  was  induced  to  repair  to  Europe  to  study  his 
art  in  the  best  schools,  and  from  the  most  famous  models. 
From  time  to  time  during  his  absence  news  occasionally  came 
which  showed  conclusively  that  the  early  promise  was  fast 
ripening  to  the  fullness  of  fruition.  About  a  year  ago  two 
marble  busts,  one  of  Henry  Shaw  and  one  of  Dr.  John  Delaney, 
were  received  here  and  exhibited,  both  of  them  receiving  the 
highest  enconiums.  His  next  work  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge  was  a  life-size  figure  entitled  "Painting  the  Lily," 
the  subject  being  a  young  girl  gracefully  poised,  with  flower 
in  one  hand  and  brush  in  the  other,  contemplating  the  result 
of  her  fanciful  laboi-s.  This  work  was  put  into  marble  by  or- 
der of  a  wealthy  San  Francisco  banker,  who  saw  the  clay  model 
in  the  artist's  studio  in  Rome,  and  the  completed  work  now 
adorns  the  fortunate  purchaser's  gallery  at  the  "Golden  Gate." 
A  plaster  cast  of  this  work  is  now  at  Harding's,  on  Olive 
Street,  where  also  is  to  be  seen  "Echo,"  a  delightfully  piquant 
composition  embodjdng  th^  very  ideal  of  feminine  archness 
and  vivacity.  Here,  also,  is  a  bust  portrait  in  marble  of  the 
late  Father  De  Smet,  which  shows  powers  of  the  highest  or- 
der. 

He  first  entered  the  celebrated  Royal  Art  Academy  at  Mu- 
nich, where  his  studies  were  prosecuted  with  characteristic 
ardor ;  thence  he  repaired  to  Italy,  where  at  Rome,  Florence, 
Venice  and  MiUm,  he  drank  deep  draughts  of  that  inspiration 
which  can  only  be  found  in  that  classic  land.  Thus  thoroughly 
saturated  with  the  spirit  of  the  art  land,  and  with  a  mind 
ripened  and  hand  and  eye  disciplined  by  the  closest  study  and 
most  strenuous  labor,  he  returned  last  winter  to  his  native  city 
and  opened  a  studio  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Fifth  and  Olive 
streets.  Here,  besides  some  remarkably  spirited  sketches,  ho 
has  just  completed  a  bust  portrait,  heroic  size,  of  the  late 
Bishop  Marvin,  which  has  met  with  unqualified  admiration. 


78  TOUR    OF    ST.  LOUIS. 

GEO.  I).  MILES. 

This  crentlemaii's  reputation  is  national,  and  in  his  specialty 
of  portrait  painting  there  are  few  artists,  if  any,  in  the  United 
States  who  excel  him.  Mr.  Miles  was  for  many  years  located 
in  New  York  City,  where  he  met  with  the  greatest  success,  but 
continued  ill  health  forced  him  to  abandon  his  natural  field,  and 
resume  his  profession  in  St.  Louis.  His  crayon  and  water 
color  pictures  are  marvelously  true  to  nature,  and  have  re- 
ceived the  highest  praise  from  the  connoisseurs  of  Europe  and 
America.  Among  his  recent  works,  so  universally  admired,  is 
a  quarter  life-size  picture  of  Booth  us  lago,  and  the  portraits 
of  Geo.  R.  Taylor,  Mr.  McGovern,  of  the  Laclede  Gas  Com- 
pany, and  his  ideal  head  of  a  child.  Mr.  Miles  is  in  every 
sense  one  of  the  distinctively  great  artists  of  America,  whose 
works  have  found  their  way  into  the  finest  salons  of  both 
continents. 

ART  EXHIBIT  AT  THE  FAIR  GROUNDS. 

The  Fair  Grounds  Association  have  always  given  great 
encouragement  to  the  display  of  works  of  art.  It  has  added 
to  its  buildings  an  art  gallery,  which  has  become  one  of  the 
chief  attractions  during;  fair  week.  This  effort  has  done  as 
much  as  anything  else  to  promote  taste  for  art  among  our 
citizens. 

Last  3^ear's  exhibit  was  the  finest  collection  of  paintings 
ever  seen  in  St.  Louis.  They  were  brought  together  at  a 
great  expense,  and  consisted  of  works  from  some  of  the  most 
celebrated  studios  of  Europe  and  America,  loaned  from  pri- 
vate collections  and  art  dealers  all  over  the  country.  The 
display  would  have  done  credit  to  any  city. 

The  citizens  of  St.  Louis  have  always  exhibited  a  com- 
mendable zeal  in  this  exhibition,  which  is  given  annually. 
The  owners  of  private  collections  have  not  been  wanting  in 
readiness  to  loan  the  gems  in  their  possession,  and  the  several 
artists  of  the  city  have  put  forth  their  best  endeavors  to  make 
the  displa}'  promotive  of  art  ideas. 


LIBRARIES, 


MERCANTILE  LIBRARY 

Twenty-three  years  ago  the  magniiicent  institution  known 
as  tlie  Mercantile  Librarj'  of  St.  Louis  began  its  existence  on  a 
good  basis  through  the  important  help  of  Henry  D.  Bacon,  Esq. 


From  that  period  to  the  i)resent  it  h;is  steadily  grown  in 
importance  and  usefulness,  until  it  now  plajs  an  iinportani 
part  in  the  mental  development  of  thousands  of  our  best 
informed  citizens . 

[79] 


80  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

In  1855  the  Board  of  Directors  took  possession  of  their 
new  buiUling,  which  had  been  erected  at  a  cost  of  one  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  dollars.  At  that  time  John  T.  Douglas, 
Esq.,  was  President,  and  the  other  officers  and  directors  were 
all  men  of  enterprise,  ^^ho  saw  the  great  usefulness  of  the 
institution  they  were  building  up.  There  were  in  1855  twelve 
thousand  volumes  on  its  shelves  and  nearly  one  thousand 
registered  members,  with  an  annual  income  of  nearly  nine 
thousand  dolhirs.  At  the  present  time  there  are  fifty  thousand 
volumes  on  the  library  shelves,  a  membership  of  nearly  five 
thousand,  with  an  average  of  seven  thousiind  readers.  One 
hundred  and  forty  thousand  volumes  a  year  are  taken  for 
reading  purposes  or  reference  ;  the  expenditures  are  more  than 
forty  thousand  dollars  annually,  and  the  value  of  the  property 
three  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

In  tlie  management  of  the  library  the  managers  have 
alwavs  kept  in  view  the  collection  of  works  of  the  highest 
merit,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  rare  and  valuable  Avorks 
on  American  history;  works  on  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  in- 
cluding those  of  Squier,  Catlin,  Las  Casas,  Priest,  Duponceau, 
and  others ;  works  on  medical  science,  both  rare  and  im- 
portant ;  Shakesperian  critiques  and  commentators  ;  patent 
report  of  Great  Britain;  works  by  Napoleon,  Humboldt; 
and  a  very  large  collection  of  illustrated  works.  The  rapid 
increase  of  volumes  in  the  library  has  outstripped  the  shelf 
accommodation,  every  inch  of  available  space  being  occupied 
at  present  and  thousands  of  books  not  duly  placed. 

In  the  reading-rooms  may  be  found  not  only  all  the  prin- 
cipal magazines  and  newspapers  of  the  United  States,  but  also 
those  of  England,  France,  Germany,  and  Belgium.  Scientific 
journals  and  reviews  from  all  important  centers  are  always  to 
be  found  at  the  reading  tables. 

Above  the  library  is  the  magnificent  hall  and  organ,  used  for 
lectures,  concerts,  etc.,  and  seating  two  thousand  persons. 
This  room  is  finely  lighted  and  ventilated,  and  in  it  are 
annually  given  courses  of  the  best  lectures  and  musical  enter- 
tainments by  the  most  talented  and  distinguished  orators  and 
musicians  in  the  world. 

Edwin  Harrison,  Esq.,  is  the  President,  and  John  N.  Dyer, 


LIBRARIES. 


81 


Esq.,  the  Librarian  ;  both  of  these  gentlemen  are  untiring  in 
their  efforts  to  keep  up  the  institution  to  its  high  standard. 
The  Directors  represent  not  only  the  substantial  wealth  of 
the  city,  but  also  its  enterprise  and  brains,  and  to  each  and  all 
of  them  the  city  of  St.  Louis  owes  much  for  keeping  up  an 
institution  that  enlio-htens  and  strensfthens  the  brains  of  both 
young  and  old  among  her  five  hundred  thousand  souls  strug- 
irliuor  for  "  more  light.'" 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  LIBRARY. 

In  the  year  1865  the  Public  School  Library,  located  at 
the  Polytechnic  Building,  Seventh  and  Chestnut  streets,  was 
first    commenced.       From    small    beginnings    it    has   rapidly 


assumed  immense  proportions,  until  at  the  present  moment  it 
contains  over  forty  thousand  volumes. 

The  reading-room,  which  is  comfortably  arranged,  is  open 
from  10  A.  M.  to  10  p.  m.  From  the  moment  of  opening  until 
closing,  great  numbers  of  young  and  old  avail  themselves  of 


82  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  advantcages  it  offers  for  study  and  reference.  The  readhig- 
room  is  free  to  all  visitors,  and  all  the  best  and  most  popular 
magazines,  reviews,  and  journals  of  the  day  may  be  found  on 
its  desks.  All  the  leading  newspapers  are  on  tile,  both 
European  and  American.  Citizens  and  strangers  are  freely 
accorded  all  the  advantages  of  the  liln-ary  while  in  the  reading- 
room,  but  the  privilege  of  taking  away  volumes  is  given  to 
members  only,  who  pay  three  dollars  per  annum.  As  a  part 
of  the  educational  institutions  of  St.  Louis,  the  Public  School 
Library  plays  an  important  work.  Scholars  and  graduates  of 
the  High  School,  who  devote  their  lives  to  special  studies,  here 
find  advantages  which  private  libiiries  do  not  offer  ;  Avhile  to 
those  who  require  reading  matter  of  a  lighter  kind  the  library 
offers  an  unlimited  amount  of  the  best  literature,  giving  food 
to  the  imagination  and  occupation  of  a  healthy  kind  to  brains 
that  would  otherwise  be  demoralized  by  the  numberless 
temptations  of  a  great  city. 

.The  officers  of  the  Public  School  Library  are:  Louis  F. 
Soldan,  President;  Fred.  M.  Crunden,  Librarian;  F.  J.  Sol- 
dan,  Actuary ;  R.  Spainer,  First  Assistant ;  F,  E.  Roesler, 
Second  Assistant;  Miss  Gussie  Campbell,  Third  Assistant; 
together  with  four  assistants. 

The  reading-room  is  largely  patronized,  especialh*  by  those 
who  have  passed  through  the  schools,  evincing  the  fact  that 
the  work  of  education  has  been  well  begun.  The  Librarian 
and  his  Assistants  are  always  courteous  and  obliging  to  visitors 
and  strangers,  and  the  reading-room  is  at  all  times  occupied 
by  numbers  who  seem  to  be  impressed  with  the  importance  of 
increasins;  their  stock  of  knowledge. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  a  library 
and  reading-room  will  be  connected  with  every  school  in  the 
city,  and  placed  on  the  ground-floor  of  an  unpretentious 
building,  so  that  the  plain,  every-day  mechanic  may  find  a  wel- 
come spot  for  instruction  without  being  overawed  by  the 
grandeur  of  the  place,  or  restrained  from  that  natural  freedom 
of  manner  which  unlettered  natures  require.  If  we  would 
educate  the  people  we  must  go  dovn  to  them.  The  Public 
School  Library  is  one  step  in  the  right  direction  ;  there  are 
many  others  to  follow. 


PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 


Thoughtful  people  in  every  community  are  gradually  learn- 
ing the  fact  that  an  ignorant  man  or  woman  is  the  most  ex- 
pensive article  that  can  be  raised.  Hence,  the  public  school 
system  becomes  the  more  valuable  as  the  creator  of  civiliza- 


ST.  LOUIS  HIGH  SCHOOL. 

tion.  St.  Louis  is  fortunately  situated  in  regard  to  educa- 
tion. The  schools  have  been  wisely  endowed  and  ably  con- 
ducted. 

The  annual  receipts  and  expenditures  at  present  amount  to 
three-quarters  of  a  million  of  dollars,  and  the  number  of  pupils 

183] 


84 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


reccivinjr  an  education  in  the  schools  in  1878  is  fifty-two 
thousanJ.  Some  idea  of  their  growth  may  be  obtained  from 
the  foUowing  figures : 

In  1841,  there  were  350  children  enrolled  ;  in  1851,  2,427  ; 
in  1801,  13,380;  in  1871,  31,087  ;  and  in  1878,  52,000. 

In  the  year  1812,  Congress  passed  an  act  giving  certain 
vacant  lands  in  the  Territory  of  Missouri,  within  the  district 
which  includes  St.  Louis  and  St.  Charles,  for  the  support  of 
the   schools  in  these  towns.     In    1824   and    1831    additional 


PEABODY  SCHOOL. 


grants  were  made  by  the  Government ;  and  in  1833  the  first 
School  Board  in  St.  Louis  was  organized,  under  a  charter  giv- 
ing it  complete  control  of  all  lands  acquired  by  acts  of  Con- 
gress. Formerly  the  Board  of  Directors  was  composed  of 
two  members  from  each  ward,  who  were  elected  by  the 
people  and  held  office  three  years. 

The  real  estate  in  possession  of  the  Board  was  leased,  and 
from  the  rents  derived  therefrom,  two  brick  school  buildings, 


EDUCATIONAL. 


85 


costing  each  three  thousand  dollars,  and  accommodating  three 
hundred  and  fifty  pupils,  were  erected. 

Up  to  1846  six  school  buildings  had  been  erected,  and 
that  before  city  taxes  for  school  purposes  had  been  levied. 

In  June,  1849,  a  tax  of  one  mill  on  the  dollar  was  voted 
for  the  support  of  the  schools,  and  the  rents  from  leases,  etc., 
amounted  to  fourteen  thousand  dollars. 

The  population  of  the  city  amounted,  at  that  time,  to 
seventy  thousand,  and  the  first  mill-tax  collected,  in  1850, 
amounted  to  eighteen  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-two 
dollars.     Since  that  time  the  growth  of  the  school  system  has 


DES  PEUES  SCHOOL. 


been  rapid.  During  the  rebellion  the  taking  unlawfully  of  the 
school  funds  by  the  State  authorities  necessitated  the  payment 
of  a  tuition  fee  ;  but  smce  1865  the  schools  have  been  free, 
and  in  growth  and  fullness  have  exceeded  the  fondest  anticipa- 
tions of  the  people  of  St.  Louis. 

There  are  now  engaged  in  the  schools  over  seven  hundred 
able  teachers,  carefully  selected  by  the  Board  and  the  Superin- 
tendent, Hon.  William  T.  Harris.  The  last  named  has  been 
untiring,  able  and  discriminating  in  making  our  schools  not 
only  of  benefit  to  the  children,   but  a  credit  to  the  State. 

Between  the  District  and  the  High  School  there  is  a  period 


S6  TO  UK    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

of  seven  years,  during  whicli  the  pupils  acquire  a  symmetrical 
development,  admirably  adapting  them  for  the  solid  instruc- 
tions given  in  the  finishing  or  High  School.  Out  of  the  fifty 
thousand  pupils  enrolled  about  2^  per  cent,  enter  the  High 
School.  The  feature  of  German-English  instruction  has  of 
late  years  become  popular,  and  the  numl)er  of  pupils  in  this 
department  has  increased  from  450  in  1864  to  10,246  in  1872. 

The  phonetic  system  of  learning  to  read  was  introduced  in 
the  primary  schools  in  1866,  and  was  attended  with  the  most 
gratifying  results. 

The  whole  number  of  schools  now  conducted  by  the  Board 
of  President  and  Directors  is  seventy-one,  and  the  value  of  the* 
property  held  by  the  Board  is  $2,386,000. 

The  number  of  school-houses  has  been  more  than  doubled 
in  the  last  ten  years,  and  the  seating  capacity  more  than 
trebled. 

The  offices  of  the  School  Board  and  President  are  located 
in  the  Polytechnic  building,  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Seventh 
and  Chestnut.  The  meetings  of  the  Board  of  Directors  are 
open  to  the  public,  and  the  Superintendent,  Mr.  Harris,  is  al- 
ways ready  to  accord  any  information  in  his  reach  to  all  in- 
quirers. Mr.  Harris  has  recently  been  re-elected  Superinten- 
dent, the  citizens  of  St.  Louis  having  full  confidence  in  his 
ability,  as  manifested  in  his  past  management  of  such  a  vast 
and  important  cause  as  that  of  the  education  of  the  commu- 
nity. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

The  growth  of  the  Kindergarten,  or  Froebel  system  of 
education  in  St.  Louis  has  been  a  marked  success.  From 
the  modest  beginning  of  one  room,  two  teachers  and  a  few 
pupils,  it  has  grown  to  forty  distinct  Kindergartens,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  teachers  and  fifteen  hundred  pupils. 

The  growth  has  been  gradual  and  steady  each  year,  show- 
ing an  advance  in  numbers  and  interest.     In  1873   the  Board 


88  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

of  Public  Schools  inaugurated  the  experiment,  Miss  S.  E. 
Blow  and  an  assistant  taking  charge  of  the  first  Kindergarten, 
in  the  Dcs  Peres  building  in  Carondelet.  At  the  conclusion 
of  the  first  year  unprejudiced  educators  of  St.  Louis  and  the 
parents  of  the  children  submitted  to  the  experiment,  declared 
unanimously  in  favor  of  the  new  education.  Three  teachers 
were  taught  the  Froebel  system  during  this  year  by  Miss 
Blow. 

In  the  fall  of  1874  two  of  these  teachers  were  placed  in 
charge  of  Kindergartens,  one  at  the  DivoU  School  and  the 
other  at  the  Everett  School. 

Cynics  had  said  of  the  Carondelet  experiment,  "  This  is 
all  very  brilliant,  no  doubt,  but  these  are  all  picked  children 
of  educated  parentage,  and  the  teacher,  an  exceptional  char- 
acter, possessed  of  unusual  talents." 

The  success  of  the  Divoll  experiment  among  the  wealthy, 
and  the  Everett  among  the  poorer  classes  of  society,  and 
under  the  guidance  of  young  ladies  wdio  were  simply  con- 
scientious workers,  proved  to  every  thoughtful  mind  that  in 
the  system  itself  was  the  secret  of  its  success,  and  this  judg- 
ment is  reached  by  every  individual  who  earnestly  and  practi- 
cally studies  Froebel' s  method. 

In  each  of  these  Kindergartens  several  youni?  ladies  were 
received  as  assistants,  their  only  compensation  being  the 
privilege  of  learning,  Miss  Blow  personally  superintending 
their  theoretical  training. 

It  is  one  of  Froebel' s  principles  that  normal  training  should 
be  given  through  actual  practice  in  the  school-room  under  the 
guidance  of  an  experienced  teacher.  This  fact  of  apprentice- 
ship is  one  of  the  fundamental  distinctions  between  the  old 
education  and  the  new. 

The  following  year,  1875,  there  were  ten  Kindergartens 
and  about  forty  teachers,  and,  as  yet,  no  pronounced  failures. 
All  varieties  of  social  life  had  now  come  under  the  influence 
of  different  grades  of  teachers,  and  still  the  Kindergartens 
grew,  an  increase  in  the  average  attendance  being  decidedly 
perceptible. 

The  next  year  twenty-eight  Kindergartens  were  enrolled, 
with  a  corps  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  teachers,  the  average 


EDUCATIONAL.  89 

attendance  in  each  Kindergarten  being  about  forty  ;  the  pres- 
ent year  the  average  is  about  fifty. 

Previous  to  the  opening  of  these  public  and  free  Kinder- 
gartens their  sphere  was  limited  to  the  Avealthy.  The  train- 
ing alone  cost  the  teacher  three  hundred  dollars,  besides  all 
other  expenses.  Of  course,  her  future  pupils  had  to  pay  for 
this  expense.  Under  such  circumstances  good  Kindergartens 
were  few  and  far  between.  For  the  diffusion  of  this  knowl- 
edge the  entire  nation  is  indebted  to  St.  Louis  and  her  Board 
of  Education . 

That  in  this  city  the  work  is  appreciated  none  can  doubt, 
save  among  those  who,  having  eyes,  see  not.  Avery  vigorous 
attempt  made  by  the  opponents  of  Kindergarten  education  to 
repress  it  roused  a  perfect  fever  of  excitement,  and  the  names 
of  thousands  of  tax-pavers  were  on  the  petitions  M'hich  went 
to  the  School  Board  protesting  against  the  movement.  A 
good  cause  must  have  its  martyrs,  and  the  advocates  of  the 
new  idea  may  still  burnish  their  armor  ;  but  when  an  acorn 
has  grown  into  an  oak  it  is  difficult  to  uproot,  and  the  Kinder- 
garten has  gained  the  parents'  hearts  through  their  love  for 
their  children.  Some  one  has  happily  called  the  Kindergarten 
the  "Paradise  of  Childhood,"  an  appellation  by  no  means 
undeserved. 


UNIVERSITIES   AND    COLLEGES. 


WASHINGTON  UNIVERSITY. 

Washington  University,  located  at  the  comer  of  Seven- 
teenth Street  and  Washington  Avenue,  is  a  handsome  brick 
building,  four  stories  high,  and  occnpying  nearly  three-fourths 
of  the  Washington  Avenue  front  on  that  bh)ck. 

The  University  owes  its  existence  to  the  public  spirit  of 
Hon.  Waymau  Crow,  wdio  in  1853  drew  up  the  charter  for 
Eliot  Seminary.  It  was  incorporated  in  that  year,  with  Rev. 
W.  G.  Eliot  as  President.  He  preferred  a  change  of  name, 
and  the  accidental  date  of  its  charter,  the  approval  homg  on 
the  twenty-second  of  February,  suggested  its  present  title. 

The  University  was  formally  inaugurated  in  1857,  an 
oration  being  given  at  Mercantile  Library  Hall  by  Edward 
Everett  Hale,  and  other  appropriate  ceremonies  at  Academic 
Hall.  The  advanced  scientific  school  was  also  opened  at  that 
time.  By  an  article  incorporated  in  the  charter,  and  placed 
beyond  the  power  of  any  future  directors  to  change — "No 
instruction,  either  sectarian  in  religion  or  partisan  in  politics, 
shall  be  allowed  in  any  department  of  said  University" — and 
no  religious  or  political  test  shall  ever  be  allowed  in  choice  of 
professors,  etc. 

The  University  comprises  five  distinct  departments.  I. 
The  Academy,  Denham  Arnold,  Principal.  II.  The  Mary 
Institute,  in  charge  of  Prof.  C.  S.  Pennell.  This  is  a  female 
seminary  under  the  University  charter,  offering  the  same 
advantages  of  high  intellectual  culture  to  young  ladies  as  are 
received  l)y  young  men  at  the  University.  It  was  founded  in 
1859,  and  has  since  occupied  a  building  erected  for  the  pur- 
pose in  Lucas  Place,  but  the  increasing  patronage  has  neces- 
sitated greater  accommodations,  and  a  fine  building  is  now 
being  erected  at  the  corner  of  Beaumont  and  Locust  streets, 

[90J 


p:di;catioxal  91 

which  will  be  occupied  during  the  next  school  year.  III.  The 
College,  Prof.  M.  S.  Snow,  Registrar.  IV.  The  Polytechnic 
School,  Prof.  Culviu  ]VI.  AVoodward,  Dean.  The  studies  m 
this  department  comprise  courses  u\  civil  and  mechanical 
engineering,  chemistry,  mining  and  metallurgy,  building  and 
architecture  ;  also,  a  special  course  in  science  and  literature. 
Rooms  are  iitted  up  with  apparatus  and  all  necessary  appli- 
ances, thus  aftbrding  the  students  opportunities  for  practical 
work  and  experiments  in  the  ditierent  departments.  The 
collection  of  minerals,  rocks,  fossils,  et<3.,  number  over  twelve 
thousand  specimens.  V.  The  Law  School,  also  known  as  the 
"St.  Louis  Law  School,"  was  established  in  186U,  but  on 
account  of  financial  and  general  depression  during  the  war  it 
was  not  opened  until  18(37.  George  M.  Stewart  is  Dean,  and 
during  its  ten  years  of  existence  it  has  risen  to  such  a  high 
standard  of  excellence  as  to  be  unsurpassed,  in  the  United 
States . 

The  University  library  has  two  thousand  volumes,  and  is 
constantly  being  increased.  During  the  year  frequent  courses 
of  lectures  are  given  on  scientific,  literary  or  historical  sub- 
jects, to  which  the  general  public  have  access,  and  a  lecture 
fund  of  $27,000  has  been  given  to  the  University  by  W.  H. 
Smith.  The  endowments  and  property  owned  by  the  institu- 
tion are  estimated  at  $750,000. 

There  is  a  fine  Observatory  in  connection  with  the  Univer- 
sity, and  very  complete  instruments  for  scientific  observation 
and  experiment,  under  the  management  of  Profs.  Woodward, 
Nipher,  Snow,  and  others,  and  to  those  gentlemen  the  citizens 
of  St.  Louis  owe  much  for  the  care  and  attention  paid  in  the 
accurate  training  given  to  the  numerous  pupils  under  their 
care. 

Courses  of  lectures  on  all  branches  of  science  are  given 
annually,  open  to  the  public  at  very  small  cost,  and  any  young 
man  desiring  advice  or  counsel,  secures  from  the  professors  of 
Washington  University  every  assistance  in  their  power  to 
bestow. 

The  liberal  constitution  of  the  College  has  given  it  a 
national  reputation,  as  one  offering  the  broadest  culture  and 
most  thorough  trainins;  of  aiiv  in  the  United  States. 


EDUCATIONAL.  93 

ST.  LOUIS  UNIVERSITY. 

This  grand  institution  of  learning  ranks  among  the  oldest 
in  the  State.  It  stands  upon  the  northwest  corner  of  Ninth 
Street  and  Washington  Avenue,  fronting  on  Ninth  Street 
and  extending  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet  upon  Washington 
Avenue. 

It  is  three  stories  high  and  built  of  elegant  pressed  brick 
in  an  unobtrusive  but  substantial  st3'le.  In  1803  its  grand 
frontage  was  extended  north  some  eighty  feet,  immediately 
adjoining  St.  Francis  Xavier  Church  on  Christy  Avenue.  This 
last  addition  is  forty  feet  deep  and  four  stories  in  height. 
The  first  three  stories  are  used  as  class-rooms,  and  the  fourth 
floor  contains  dormitories  for  the  senior  students,  and  also  the 
Philalethic  Hall,  where  debates  are  conducted  by  the  students 
under  the  supervision  of  the  professors. 

The  College  building  proper  contains  a  chapel  for  the  senior 
students  on  the  ground  floor.  The  second  floor  contains  the 
museum  and  library,  and  on  the  third  floor  is  the  grand  exhi- 
bition hall.  The  hall  is  noted  for  its  beauty  and  taste  in 
ornamentation.  It  possesses  most  excellent  aooubtic  proper- 
ties, and  has  been  regarded  as  ohe  of  the  finest  in  the  cit}^  for 
public  exhibitions. 

The  library  of  the  college  contains  over  twenty-five  thous- 
and volujnes.  Its  range  includes  the  ancient  classics,  English 
literature,  travels  and  history,  the  best  of  English  and  French 
fiction,  philosophy,  arts,  science,  and  theology. 

Many  of  the  rarest  books  in  the  world  are  found  here,  and 
students  from  all  quarters  of  the  land  have  had  occasion  to 
consult  its  treasures.  Its  collection  of  Indian  curiosities  and 
skulls,  also  of  coins,  stones,  carvings,  pictures  and  mementoes 
are  among  the  most  rare  and  instructive  relics  known  any- 
whej'e. 

This  institution  is  well  fitted  to  give  a  liberal  education  to 
its  pupils.  The  studies  cover  a  wide  scope,  well  fitted  to  im- 
part a  thorough  education.  The  management  is  in  the  best  of 
hands  and  the  professors  are  known  as  among  the  first  educa- 
tors of  the  land. 


.    EDUCATIONAL.  95 

ST.  LOUIS  SEMINARY. 

This  is  a  private  select  school  for  young  ladies,  situated  at 
Jenuing's  Station,  on  a  commanding  summit  overlooking  the 
city  of  St.  Louis,  remarkable  for  its  beauty,  its  healthfulness, 
and  its  removal  from  all  disturbing  influences.  The  proximity 
of  the  Seminary  to  the  city  (thirty  minutes  only  recpiired  to 
reach  the  heart  of  the  city  from  the  Seminary)  secures  to 
the  young  ladies  all  the  advantages  for  improvement  offeretl 
by  St.  Louis,  and  yet  it  is  surrounded  by  all  the  ({uiet  and 
seclusion  of  a  rural  neighborhood.  The  elegant  and  well- 
arranged  edifice  stands  in  the  midst  of  a  beautiful,  shady 
lawn  of  six  acres,  surrounded  by  pure  air  and  abundantly 
supplied  with  pure  water. 

The  grade  of  scholarship  is  high,  and  the  instruction 
thorough,  only  the  very  best  text  books  being  used.  The 
Principal,  Prof.  B.  T.  Blewett,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  who  has  an 
experience  of  twenty-five  years,  devotes  his  entire  personal 
attention  to  class  instruction,  and  is  assisted  by  an  able  corps 
of  teachers.  Besides  the  thorough  literary  course,  everj'^  de- 
sirable advantage  is  offered  in  the  departments  of  instrumental 
and  vocal  music.  Drawing,  sketching  from  nature,  painting 
in  oil  and  water  colors,  wax-work,  and  whatever  else  apper- 
tains to  the  ornamental  education  of  a  young  lady,  are  skill- 
full v  tauirht. 


MRS.  CUTHBERT'S  YOUNG  LADIES'  SEMINARY. 

This  school  for  young  ladies  is  pleasantly  located  on  the 
corner  of  Pine  and  Sixteenth  streets,  in  a  building  that  was  for 
uiau}^  years  known  as  the  City  Univ^ersit}'.  When  that  insti- 
tuti(ni  relinquished  the  field  and  liquidated,  Mrs.  Cuthberl 
found  in  it  a  most  suitable  locality  for  her  Seminary  for  3'^ouug 
ladies.  The  corps  of  teachers  employed  are  good,  the  range 
of  studies  is  quite  extensive,  and  everything  is  done  to  pro- 
mote the  good  education  of  those  coming  under  the  care  of  the 
Seminary.  The  domestic  arrangements  are  ample,  with  the 
best  influences  to  secure  a  thorough  education.  Mrs.  Eugene 
Cuthbert  is  the  Principal. 


EDUCATIONAL.  97 

THE  VISITATION  FEMALE  ACADEMY. 

More  than  a  half  a  century  ago  the  Sisters  of  the  Visitation 
estabhshed  at  the  ancient  town  of  Kaskaskia,  Ills.,  conducted 
one  of  the  most  popular  seminaries  for  the  education  of  young 
ladies  then  m  existence  in  the  West.  When  the  memorable 
flood  of  1844  swept  over  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the  low 
grounds  on  which  the  Visitation  Convent  at  Kaskaskia  was 
situated  were  completely  niundated,  and  the  inmates  were 
compelled  to  take  passage  on  a  steamboat  for  St.  Louis. 

Arriving  here  in  July,  1844,  the  kindly  sympathies  of  the 
people  were  excited  in  behalf  of  the  unfortunate  ladies,  and 
when  soon  after  the  foundation  of  a  new  and  lar^-er  establish- 
ment  was  laid,  the  Sisters  had  the  active  support  and  assistance 
of  the  entire  community,  irrespective  of  church  relations.  In 
due  time  the  extensive  buildings  on  the  north  side  of  Cass 
Avenue,  above  Twentieth  Street,  were  completed,  and  the 
Sisters  opened  the  sessions  of  a  seminary  for  the  education  of 
young  ladies,  which  has  grown  in  popular  esteem  with  every 
succeeding  year,  and  is  at  this  time  in  a  flourishing  condition, 
and  regarded  by  all  as  one  of  the  institutions  of  which  St. 
Louis  people  may  well  feel  proud. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  ladies  belonging  to  this 
order  of  religion  are  eminently  qualified  by  thorough  mental 
training  and  moral  discipline  for  the  duties  of  instructors  of 
those  who  are  soon  to  take  the  leading  positions  in  society. 
This  opinion,  so  extensively  entertained,  serves  to  supply  the 
academy  with  pupils.  Accordingly  it  is  not  a  matter  of  sur- 
prise that  every  year  a  larger  number  of  young  ladies  from 
distant  States  and  Territories  are  gathered  into  this  temple  of 
learning.  The  refinement  and  varied  acquirements  of  the 
nuns  offer  a  complete  guarantee  that  the  intellectual,  social 
and  moral  aptitudes  of  those  placed  in  their  charge  will  be 
developed  to  the  fullest  possible  extent. 

The  situation  of  the  institution  is  jDleasant  and  retired, 
though  in  the  midst  of  the  populous  city.  The  buildings  are 
extensive  and  well  ventilated  ;  the  grounds  are  of  suflicient 
extent  to  permit  the  enjoyment  of  out-door  recreation.  The 
course    of  study    is    thorough ;  the    discipline    excellent ;  the 


98  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

moral  atmosphere  pervading  the  institution  unexceptional,  and 
the  opportunities  for  a  quiet  and  earnest  devotion  to  study 
which  are  offered  at  the  Visitation  Academy  can  not  be  sur- 
passed within  the  walls  of  any  institution  within  the  city,  or 
indeed  anywhere  in  the  West.  About  one  hundred  and  forty 
pupils  were  enrolled  during  the  spring  term  of  1878,  repre- 
senting several  States  and  the  Territory  of  New  Mexico.  In 
every  respect  the  Visitation  Academy  is  commended  to  parents 
as  a  first-class  educational  institution,  one  in  which  young 
ladies  are  strictly  guarded  and  cared  for  by  ladies  of  the 
hio-hest  character  for  intellectual  and  moral  qualities. 


JONES'  COMMERCIAL   COLLEGE. 

Prominent  among  the  great  educational  institutions  in  the 
West  for  the  past  thirty-seven  years  is  Jones'  Commercial  Col- 
lege, which  has  been  the  leading  factor  in  shaping  the  destiny  of 
a  laro-e  majority  of  our  wealthiest  and  most  prominent  citizens. 
Its  record  is  a  noble  one  and  well  worthy  of  perpetuation,  de- 
serving a  proud  position  in  the  most  valuable  archives  of  our 
great  city. 

The  institution  was  established  in  St.  Louis  by  E.  M.  Bart- 
lett  &  Co.,  in  1841,  on  Main,  between  Green  Street  and  Wash- 
ington Avenue,  at  that  time  the  most  eligible  location  in  the 
city,  for  Fourth  Street  had  not  yet  been  paved,  and  the  busi- 
ness all  centered  on  Main  and  Second  streets.  For  the  first 
four  months  after  opening  the  college  did  not  receive  a  single 
scholar,  but  before  the  year  expired  forty-five  had  matriculated 
for  the  course. 

Among  the  first  applicants  for  admission  were  Com.  C.  K. 
Garrison,  Isaac  L.  Garrison,  Theodore  Laveillc,  J.  H.  Mait- 
land,  Edward  Tracy,  and  Nicholas  Wahl. 

In  1843  Jonathan  Jones,  who  is  still  the  proprietor,  assumed 
the  management  of  the  college,  which  prospered  rapidly,  and 


EDUCATIONAL.  99 

finding  the  trade  of  the  city  shifting  he  removed  to  the  corner 
of  Fourth  and  Chestnut  streets,  where  he  remained  eleven 
years.  Among  the  hundreds  who  graduated  from  the  college 
while  located  in  this  place  may  be  mentioned  Com.  John  A., 
Wm.  H.  and  Charles  Scudder,  Hon.  E.  O.  Stanard,  Robert  D. 
Patterson,  Henry  Haarstick,  John  P.  Keyser,  Edgar  Ames, 
the  late  John  S.  McCune  and  Napoleon  Mullikin,  Hon.  Wm. 
H.  Stone,  Wm.  and  Henry  McKee,  H.  C.  Yaeger,  H.  Senter, 
Hon.  J.  H.  Fisse,  Felix  Coste,  Henry  Hough,  Conrad  Fath, 
Daniel  G.  Taylor,  Capt.  Chas.  Warner,  and  many  others  of 
equal  prominence. 

In  1854  another  change  of  location  was  deemed  desirable, 
and  accordingly  the  college  was  removed  to  the  southeast  cor- 
ner of  Third  Street  and  Washington  Avenue,  where  it  re- 
mained until  1866,  when  Mr.  Jones  leased  the  Odd-Fellows'  Hall, 
corner  of  Fourth  and  Locust  streets,  and  continued  there  until 
1869,  wdien  the  college  was  removed  to  the  Lucas  building, 
corner  of  Fifth  and  Olive  streets,  and  in  1877  removed  to  its 
present  location,  occupying  the  third  and  fourth  floors  of  Nos. 
309  and  311  North  Fifth  Street. 

In  1869  Mr.  Jones  received  a  paralytic  stroke  in  the  right 
arm,  which  so  disabled  him  that  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
the  city,  going  into  the  interior  of  St.  Louis  County,  where 
he  followed  agricultural  pursuits  for  several  years,  and  after- 
wards spent  four  years  in  mincr:ilogical  researches  in  the 
mountains  where  he  entirely  recovered.  During  his  absence 
the  college  was  run  by  a  managing  principal  ;  and  in  1877  Mr. 
Jones  returned  and  entered  again  upon  the  active  discharge  of 
his  duties  with  renewed  vigor. 

The  college  under  the  present  admirable  arrangement  is 
one  of  the  most  complete  and  thorough  institutions  for  giving 
a  full  course  of  commercial  instructions,  including  book-keep- 
ing, penmanship,  mathematics,  phonography,  commercial  law, 
etc.,  in  the  United  States.  A  larire  room  on  the  ri^ht  hand 
side  of  the  second  floor  is  devoted  exclusively  to  the  instruction 
of  ladies.  The  floor  is  elegantly  carpeted,  the  walls  hung 
with  fine  drawings  and  beautiful  sj^ecimens  of  ornamental  pen- 
manship. Everything  comports  Avith  a  cultivated  feminine 
taste.      The   principals    in    this    department   are    Mrs.    Mary 


100  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Pr.'ither  and  Miss  Mary  Baumgartner.  On  the  left-hand  side 
of  the  hall  are  two  mairniticcnt  rooms,  one  for  mathematics  and 
the  other  for  penmanship,  the  former  department  being  under 
the  charge  of  Prof.  J.  W.  Ellis,  and  the  latter  presided  over 
by  Prof.  J.  H.  Bohmcr  and  Mrs.  S.  D.  Hayden.  The  fourth 
floor  is  reserved  for  instruction  in  book-keeping  for  gentlemen. 
It  is  a  grand  room,  fronting  on  Fifth  Street,  forty-six  by  fifty- 
six  feet  in  dimension,  well  ventilated  and  perfectly  lighted; 
Prof.  David  Allan  is  the  principal  of  this  department.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  rooms  enumerated  there  are  several  other  depart- 
ments ;  one  for  commercial  law,  under  Mr.  Jones  ;  another  for 
phonography,  under  Prof.  A.  A.  Oldfield  ;  another  for  orna- 
mental penmanship,  under  F.  W.  Wiesehahn,  unquestionably 
the  best  penman  on  the  globe  ;  and  another  for  the  rudimentary 
branches,  reading,  spelling  and  grammar.  Every  teacher  is 
letter  perfect  in  their  respective  departments,  and  the  student 
who  enters  Jones'  College  is  taught  the  practice  of  book-keep- 
ing and  can  obtain  as  thorough  instruction  in  mathematics  as  in 
Yale  or  Harvard  Colleges.  Mr.  Jones'  supervision  is  seen  in 
every  department,  and  his  attention  to  detail  is  such  that  every- 
thing about  the  college,  with  its  three  hundred  and  fifty  stu- 
dents, progresses  without  a  jar.  No  better  present  can  be 
given  to  any  young  man  or  lady  than  a  scholarship  in  Jones' 
Commercial  College,  a  course  through  which  prepares  them 
for  every  important  duty  in  life. 


EDUCATIONAL. 


101 


MISSOURI  MEDICAL  COLLEGE. 

The  educational  advantages  of  St.  Louis  compare  favorably 
with  those  of  any  other  city,  either  in  this  country  or  Europe  ; 
but,  unfortunately,  a  prevalent  belief  has  obtained  in  America 
that  a  finished  education  can  only  l)e  procured  by  along  course 
through  Oxford,  Heidelburg,  Berlin,  or  some  of  those  foreign 
universities  whose  chief  advantage  is  found  in  the  single  fact 
that  they  are  four  thousand  miles  away  from  home.     In  medi- 


cal knowledge  the  most  profound  discoveries  have  been  made 
during  the  past  score  of  years  by  Americans,  and  our  medical 
institutions  are  now  looked  upon  with  far  greater  favor  by  for- 
eign scientists  than  thev  are  by  those  whom  every  proper  con- 
sideration  should  make  their  strongest  supi)orters  and  patrons. 
The  strange  anamolv  is  likely  to  l)e  soon  realized  of  European 
candidates  matriculating  in  American  coWegea,  and  vice  versa — 


102  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

a  consummation  born  of  that  indefinable  impulse  which  draws 
its  inspiration  from  strange  people  and  unfamiliar  lands. 

While  the  knowledge  which  enables  us  to  accumulate,  and 
which  furnishes  the  motive  power  for  great  purposes,  is  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  evolution  of  society,  it  is  subservient  to 
that  knowledge  which  enables  us  to  live  and  dissipate  the  suf- 
fering ailments  of  the  body.  The  establishing  of  a  medical 
college,  notwithstanding  the  honorable  profession,  the  ranks 
of  which  it  is  intended  to  recruit,  is  a  most  difficult  under- 
taking, the  reason  of  which  is  not  readily  apparent.  The  fol- 
lowing- history,  therefore,  of  one  of  the  most  successful  insti- 
tions  of  this  character  in  the  United  States,  especially  since 
St.  Louis  is  entitled  to  the  honor  of  its  location,  is  of  special 
interest  and  importance  to  readers  generally  throughout  the 
country  : 

\n  the  winter  of  1839,  Joseph  N.  McDowell  conceived  the 
idea  of  founding  a  medical  college  in  St.  Louis,  and  to  give 
basis  to  his  plans  he  confern^d  with  Dr.  John  S.  Moore,  one 
of  the  young  but  most  prominent  physicians  in  Tennessee. 
The  result  of  the  communication  was  the  coming  of  Dr.  Moore 
to  St.  Louis  and  the  founding  of  a  medical  department  of 
Kemper  College.  The  charter  being  obtained  without  delay, 
and  a  faculty  organized,  in  six  months  from  the  date  of  the 
first  letter  between  Drs.  McDowell  and  Moore,  the  first  session 
of  the  new  college  was  inaugurated  by  a  pu])lic  lecture  deliv- 
ered by  Dr.  Moore.  The  first  faculty  comprised  the  following 
gentlemen,  the  most  of  whom  have  long  since  fallen  into  that 
sleep  which  ne'er  awakens:  Joseph  N.  McDowell,  M.  D., 
Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Surgery,  and  Dean  of  the  Faculty  ; 
John  S.  Moore,  A.  M.,  M.D.,  Professor  of  01)stetrics  and  Dis- 
eases of  Women  and  Children  :  J.  D.  Wolff,  A.  M.,  M.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Chemistry ;  Joseph  W.  Hall,  M.D.,  Professor  of  the 
Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  ;  H.  A.  Prout,  Professor  of 
Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics. 

The  first  session  was  held  in  a  building  on  the  corner  of 
Ninth  and  Cerre  streets,  opening  on  the  1st  of  November,  1840, 
with  a  class  of  thirty-seven,  three  of  whom  were  candidates 
for  graduation  and  received  their  diplomas  at  the  close  of  the 
session,  which   occurred  on  the  1st  of  March,  1841.     Amono- 


EDUCATIONAL.  lOo 

the  earliest  gradihates  of  the  college  still  living  and  practicing 
are  Dr.  W.  S.  Edgar,  editor  of  the  >6''^  Louis  MedicalJoarnal ; 
Dr.  Illinski,  a  prominent  physician  of  Illinois;  Dr.  Willing; 
and  Dr.  Murison,  one  of  the  leading  physicians  of  ]\Ieni[)his, 
Tenn.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  successful  and  prom- 
inent graduates  of  the  "Medical  Department  of  Kemper  Col- 
lege," and  are  recalled  from  memory,  all  the  early  records  of 
the  institution  having  been  destroyed  during  the  war. 

The  second  session  opened  with  a  class  of  forty-two,  but 
directly  thereafter  an  unfortunate  difficulty  arose  between  the 
faculty,  resulting  in  the  withdrawal  of  Drs.  Hall  and  Prout, 
who  organized  the  St.  Louis  Medical  College,  generally  known 
now  as  the  Pope  School,  which  drew  away  some  of  the  students. 
The  third  class,  however,  was  so  large  as  to  assure  success  to 
the  enterprise,  and  inspired  the  faculty  with  such  high  hopes 
of  the  future  that  they  determined  upon  the  erection  of  a  mag- 
nificent college  buikling.  The  determination,  however,  was 
not  accomplished  until  1849,  when  the  building  which  now 
stands  as  a  shattered  ruin  on  the  corner  of  Eighth  and  Gratiot 
streets  was  completed,  and  stood  acknowledged  one  of  the 
grandest  structures  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  reputation 
of  the  college  spread  at  a  rapid  rate,  and  every  session  was 
opened  with  a  largely  increased  class,  fulfilling  the  most  san- 
guine hopes  of  the  faculty  and  friends  of  the  institution. 

In  January,  1846,  owing  to  pecuniary  embarrassments,  the 
literary  department  of  Kemper  College  was  abandoned  and  the 
building  sold.  The  medical  faculty  thereupon  held  a  meeting 
at  which  a  resolution  was  adopted  instructing  the  Dean  to  open 
negotiations  Mith  the  State  University  at  Columbia,  with  the 
view  of  establishing  a  connection  with  that  institution.  Satis- 
foctory  arrangements  were  concluded  in  Felnniary  following, 
and  the  jVIedical  Department  of  the  State  University  of  Mis- 
souri continued  until  1857.  About  this  time  a  bill  passed  the 
legislature  prohibiting  professors  in  medical  colleges  from 
practicing,  and  to  obtain  some  special  advantages  a  charter 
was  applied  for  and  granted,  under  which  the  Missouri  Insti- 
tute of  Science  was  established,  with  a  medical  department 
which  w^as  styled  the  Missouri  Medical  College,  by  which  it  is  still 
known.     The  prosperity  of  the  school  continued  unabated  until 


104  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  breaking  out  of  hostilities  ])etwecn  the  South  and  North. 
The  differences  which  brought  about  the  terrible  fraternal  war 
also  alienated  and  disrupted  the  fraternity  of  the  college  fac- 
ulty, and  so  bitter  and  irreconcilable  were  the  divisions  that  the 
pall  of  an  eternal  dissolution  s(K>nied  settling  over  the  hopes, 
aspirations  and  prospects  of  the  college.  The  darksome  visage 
of  war  shadowed  the  great  temple,  and  finally  settled  upon  its 
grand  museum  of  pathological  and  physiological  specimens. 
Professor  McDowell,  the  Dean,  became  unalterably  attached  to 
the  Southern  cause,  and  so  openly  expressive  and  demonstra- 
tive of  his  opinions,  that  his  private  residence  and  the  college 
buildiu"-  were  seized  by  the  Union  troops,  and  the  temple  of 
science  and  medicine  was  soon  converted  into  a  military  prison. 
The  ruthless  hand  of  destruction  scattered  beyond  reclaim,  not 
onlv  the  relics  of  humanity  but  also  all  the  apparatus,  and 
converted  the  magnificent  lecture  hall  into  a  store-room  for 
supplies,  and  the  court-yard  into  a  place  for  bloody  execu- 
tions. 

The  hopes  of  many  were  buried  in  the  ruins  of  the  old 
McDowell  building,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  revive  the 
college  until  the  year  1865,  when  the  ravages  of  war  had  spent 
itself  and  Dr.  McDowell  returned  to  St.  Louis  to  infuse  new 
life  into  the  undertaking  so  auspiciously  begun,  so  disastrously 
terminated.  For  a  second  time  he  was  aided  by  Dr.  Moore, 
and  before  the  year  Avas  finished  a  new  faculty  was  engaged 
and  the  college  re-organized.  They  re-occupied  the  old  dilapi- 
dated building  which  was,  indeed,  past  repair  ;  l)ut  there  was 
another  hope  actuating  the  hopeful  originator.  The  first  and 
second  classes  numbered  scarcely  fifty,  and  in  the  year  1868 
the  college  met  with  another  reverse  in  the  death  of  the  origi- 
nator, Dr.  Joseph  McDowell.  Dr.  Moore,  who  had  been  his 
pupil,  partner  and  friend,  performed  the  last  sad  services  over 
the  remains  of  his  esteemed  colleague,  and  delivered  an  oration 
over  the  body  which  is  still  remembered  as  one  of  the  most 
impressive  and  eloquent  ever  spoken.  It  was  with  great  diffi- 
culty that  the  chair,  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  Dr.  McDow- 
ell, was  filled,  and  the  college  relapsed  again  into  Avhat  it  was 
at  the  re-organization.  At  length,  however.  Professor  Paul  F. 
Eve,  of  Xashville,  Teini.,  was   offered   the   position,  which  he 


EDUCATIONAL.  105 

accepted,  but  resigned  after  the  first  year,  and  returned  to 
Nashville,  The  chair  was  then  divided,  and  the  positions  filled 
by  Drs.  E.  A.  Clark  and  A.  Hammer,  l)ut  only  for  a  short 
time,  as  in  the  sprino-  of  1871  Dr.  Clark  died  while  on  the  way 
to  Europe,  deeply  lamented  by  all  who  knew  him.  Dr.  A.  P. 
Lankford,  Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  Kansas  City  Medical 
College,  one  of  the  most  eminent  surgeons  in  the  United  States, 
was  appointed  to  the  vacancy  :  and  in  1872  the  chair  of  surgery 
was  consolidated  and  Dr.  Lankford  was  assigned  to  the  entire 
chair,  a  position  he  still  holds  with  the  greatest  credit  to  him- 
self and  the  college. 

Directly  after  the  re-organization  following  the  changes 
caused  by  the  death  of  Dr.  McDowell,  there  were  added  chairs 
of  Clinical  Medicine  and  Physical  Diagnosis,  Ophthalmolog}' 
and  Histology,  Psychological  Medicine  and  Diseases  of  the 
Nervous  System,  to  which  the  following  i)roniinent  medical 
gentlemen  were  appointed  :  P.  Gervais  Robinson,  M.  D.,  one 
of  the  most  scientific  and  experienced  physicians  in  the  AVest, 
was  assigned  to  the  first ;  C.  E.  Michel,  M.  D.,  long  connected 
with  the  college  and  an  able  lecturer,  filled  the  second,  and  J. 
K.  Bauduy,  M.  D.,  a  popular  lecturer  and  skillful  scientist, 
was  selected  to  the  third  named  chair.  By  these  additions  the 
Missouri  Medical  Collejje  advanced  abreast  of  the  leading;  med- 
ical  colleges  in  the  United  States. 

In  1873  the  college  had  attained  another  firm  footing,  and 
the  construction  of  another  buildins;  was  aoitated.  An  ar- 
rangement  was  concluded  with  the  Sisters  in  charge  of  St. 
John's  Hospital,  and  in  the  middle  of  May  of  the  same  year, 
a  site  was  selected  on  the  corner  of  Twenty-Third  Street  and 
Lucas  Avenue,  and  the  laying  of  the  foundation  begun.  The 
faculty  formed  a  stock  company,  and  by  a  liberal  donation  of 
their  means  furnished  the  necessary  capital  to  push  the  build- 
ing to  an  early  completion.  Strange  to  say,  perhaps,  while 
the  new  college  building  was  begun  in  1873,  and  is  one  of  the 
finest,  largest  and  most  substantial  medical  colleges  in  th(> 
L^nited  States,  it  was  so  far  completed  that  the  succeeding 
course  of  lectures  for  1873-74  were  delivered  in  the  new  build- 
ing to  a  class,  the  largest  that  had  ever  matriculated  in  the 
college.     Being   located    adjoining    St.   flohn's   Hospitnl,  the 


106  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

students  had  the  advantage  of  clinical  facilities  equal  to  those 
of  any  institution  in  existence,  which  furthered  its  reputation 
and  largely  increased  its  classes. 

In  1874-75  the  number  of  students  was  increased  twenty- 
five  per  cent.,  and  under  the  prosperity  which  continued  to  at- 
tend the  efforts  of  the  faculty,  a  large  number  of  apparatus 
were  purchased'and  thousands  of  niico-photographic  prepara- 
tions were  added,  illustrative  of  histology,  pathology,  etc.,  for 
the  use  of  classes.  The  clinical  professors  spared  no  means  to 
perfect  their  department,  and  instruments  were  purchased,  in 
the  use  of  which  students  are  instructed  by  surgical  operations 
w^hich  take  place  daily.  In  1875-7C  the  class  had  increased  to 
two  hundred  and  six  students,  the  largest  ever  assembled  in 
St.  Louis  ;  but  in  1877-78  the  class  numbered  two  hundred  and 
forty-seven,  and  on  the  1st  of  March  of  the  present  year  the 
deo;ree  of  M.  D.  was  conferred  on  one  hundred  and  two  o-rad- 
uates,  and  the  exercises,  which  took  ])lace  in  Mercantile  Li- 
brary Hall,  were  the  most  interesting,  and  attended  by  the 
largest  audience  ever  before  assembled  in  St.  Louis  for  a  sim- 
ilar purpose. 

The  surgical  department  has  been  recently  materially 
strengthened  by  the  addition  of  Dr.  T.  F.  Prewitt,  who  takes 
charge  of  surgical  clinics  at  St.  John's  Hospital,  and  Dr.  John 
8.  Moore,  who  retired  a  short  time  from  the  college,  has  re- 
sumed his  position,  and  is  quite  as  enthusiastic  over  the 
proud  future  of  his  college  now  as  he  was  during  any  time  in 
its  history,  for  although  the  Missouri  Medical  College  has  at- 
tained a  rank  in  the  medico-scientific  world  equal  to  the  great- 
est institutions  of  any  country,  the  range  of  possibilities  is 
always  extending  to  the  true  physician,  with  new  discoveries 
and  the  desire  for  a  higher  attainment  in  the  alluring  profes- 
sion. The  graduates  of  the  Missouri  Medical  Collejre  are 
scattered  over  both  continents,  and  number  among  the  list 
many  of  the  brightest  geniuses  that  ever  adorned  the  medical 
profession,  among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Dr.  Jno.  T. 
Hodgen,  Prof.  G.  M.  B.  Maughs,  Dr.  II.  Tuholske,  Dr. 
Samuel  G.  Armour,  who  is  now  Dean  of  Long  Island  Hospital, 
Dr.  G.  W.  Hall,  Drs.  John  and  D.  McDowell,  and  a  host  of 
others  of  equal  prominence. 


EDUCATIONAL.  107 

The  present  faculty  of  the  college  comprises  the  following 
well-known  physicians  : 

Wm.  M.  McPheeters,  M.  D.,  Emeritus  Professor  of  Ma- 
teria Medica  and  Therapeutics. 

John  S.  Moore,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Principles  of  Medi- 
cine. 

G.  M.  B.  Maughs,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Obstetrics  and  Dis- 
eases of  Women. 

P.  Gervais  Robinson,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Practice  of  Med- 
icine and  Clinical  Medicines,  and  Dean  of  Faculty. 

A.  P.  Lankford,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Surgery  and  Clinical 
Surgery. 

J.  K.  Bauduy,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Psychological  Medi- 
cine, Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System  and  Medical  Jurispru- 
dence. 

Charles  E.  Michel,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Histology  and  Dis- 
eases of  the  Eye. 

T.  L.  Papin,  M.  D.,  Clinical  Professor  of  GynaBcology. 

H.  Tuholske,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Minor 
Surgery  and  Demonstrator. 

Otto  A.  Wall,  M.  D,,  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Phar- 
macy. 

C.  A.  Todd,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Physiology  and  Diseases 
of  the  Ear  and  Throat. 

J.  P.  Kingsley,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Materia  Medica,  Thera- 
peutics and  Pharmacy. 

T.  F.  Prewitt,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Clinical  Surgery. 

This  list  is  composed  of  the  most  skillful  physicians  in  the 
West,  whose  reputations  are  by  no  means  local,  and  under 
whom  the  Missouri  Medical  College  has  not  only  prospered 
but  been  accorded  a  conspicuous  position  among  the  greatest 
institutions  of  either  continent. 


CHURCHES. 


The  churches  of  a  great  city  in  some  measure  reflect  the 
social  and  religious  life  of  its  inhabitants.  St.  Louis  is  a 
church-going  city,  and  all  the  prominent  sects  find  their  repre- 
sentatives and  exponents  among  us.  Many  of  the  edifices  are 
models  of  architectural  taste  and  beauty,  as  also  the  homes  of 
wealthy  and  thriving  congregations.  Like  the  churches  of  all 
large  cities,  the  majority  struggle  for  existence,  contending 
against  poverty  and  burdensome  debts.  The  stronger  and 
more  flourishing  are  compelled  to  carry  along  the  wealvcr  ones. 
It  would  be  pleasant  to  give  the  interested  reader  a  view  of  all 
our  prominent  churches,  but  limited  space  admonishes  us  that 
only  a  few  can  l)e  noticed  in  this  volume. 

After  New  Orleans  and  Baltimore,  St.  Louis  ranks  the  third 
Konian  Catholic  city  in  the  Union.  The  influence  and  wealth 
of  this  church  far  exceeds  that  of  any  other  religious  body. 
The  pioneers  of  this  region  were,  for  the  most  part,  identified 
with  the  Mother  Church,  and  their  descendants  have  been 
largely  retained  within  her  folds.  As  the  city  has  enlarged, 
so  has  this  church  extended  itself  in  its  number  of  edifices,  its 
membership,  and  its  educational  mfluences. 

CATHEDRAL— EOM AN  CATHOLIC. 

The  old  Cathedral  on  Walnut  Street,  near  Second,  marks 
the  spot  where  the  first  church  edifice  was  erected  in  this  city. 
Father  (iibault  blessed  the  little  log  church  that  was  built  with 
a  struggle,  and  was  privileged  to  say  the  first  mass  within  its 
walls.  It  was  the  scene  of  devout  worship  for  nearly  fifty 
years  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  humble  vilhiire  Li<>uest  had  laid 
out.  Since  that  day  the  Catholic  Church  has  maintained  a 
large  place  in  the  city,  valuable  property  has  been  acquired, 
while  imposing  and  ornamental  structures  have  been  erected. 

[108J 


CHURCHES. 


109 


ST.  ALPHONSUS    CHURCH— ROMAN  CATHOLIC. 

This  is  one  of  the  tinest  churches  in  the  cit}^  and  is  located 
on  Grand  Avenue.  It  is  built  of  limestone  from  our  native 
quarries.  It  is  an  attractive  edifice,  and  from  its  command- 
ing position  shows  to  good  effect. 


ST.  ALPHONSUS   CHURCH. 

ST.    JOHN    THE   EVANGELIST— ROMAN    CATHOLIC. 

This  is  an  elegant  brick  edifice  situated  on  the  corner  of 
Sixteenth  and  Chestnut  streets.  The  interior  is  finely  fres- 
coed and  ornamented  with  the  utmost  taste  and  elegance. 
Many  of  our  most  influential  citizens  are  identified  with  this 
church.  Rt.  Rev.  P.  J.  Ryan,  Bishop  of  this  Diocese,  offici- 
ates here  and  has  his  residence  adjoining  the  eastern  end  of 
the  church. 

CENTENARY  CHURCH— METHODIST, 

Corner  of  Sixteenth   and   Pine  streets,  is  perhaps  the  finest 
church  in  the  denomination. 

Its  style  is  chaste  and  elegant,  well  furnished,  and  all  its 
appointments  in  keeping  with  the  wants  of  the  congregation. 


;110  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Rev.  W.  V.  Tudor,  D.  D.,  pastor,  is  a  man  of  rare  gifts,  a 
good  scholar,  and  is  a  gentleman  of  the  most  pleasing  address. 
He  is  beloved  by  his  people,  and  may  be  counted  among  the 
successful  i)astors  of  the  city. 

The  church  originally  worshiped  in  the  old  building  corner 
of  Fifth  and  Pine  streets  until  1870,  when  it  removed  to  its 
present  location. 

The  new  editice  cost  something  over  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  dollars. 


FIRST  CHURCH— METHODIST, 

Corner  of  Washington  Avenue  and  Eighth  Street.  This  church 
has  been  recently  fitted  up,  enlarged  and  remodeled.  It  is  '  'the 
down-town  church,"  being  the  only  one  remaining  near  the 
hotels  and  business  portion  of  the  city.  Seats  are  free,  and  it 
is  the  home  for  strangers  and  a  place  where  the  masses  are 
always  welcome. 

UNION  CHURCH— METHODIST, 

Corner  of  Eleventh  and  Locust  streets.  Rev.  Ross  C.  Hough- 
ton, D.D.,  pastor.  The  growth  of  this  church  has  been  re- 
markable, and  the  same  may  be  said  of  its  influence  for  good 
upon  the  community.  Central  Church,  corner  of  Morgan  and 
Twenty-fourth  streets,  is  an  outgrowth  from  this  noble  body 
of  Christians.  Its  pastors,  since  its  organization  in  1861,  have 
been  men  of  thought  and  pulpit  power.  Rev.  H.  Cox,  D.  D., 
their  first  leader,  was  a  man  of  immense  vigor,  and  brought 
the  church  up  to  great  usefulness.  No  less  powerful  w^as  Rev. 
A.  C.  George,  D.  D.,  w^ho  worked  with  unremitting  zeal,  and 
was  an  honored  acquisition  to  the  pulpit  power  of  the  city  so 
long;  as  he  remained  amono;  the  churches  he  cared  for. 

Some  of  our  most  influential  citizens  have  been  identified 
with  it  from  its  earliest  struggles.  Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fiske, 
Gov.  E.  O.  Stanard,  Henry  C.  Yaeger,  A.  S.  W.  Good- 
win, Benjamin  Horton  and  others,  have  been  untiring  in  their 
zeal  and  devotion  to  its  interests  from  the  beginning. 


CHURCHES. 


HI 


CLAYTON  METHODIST  CHURCH 

Is  a  gem  of  real  beauty,  situated  ou  the  Claytou  Road.  Some 
beuevolent  hearts  projected  the  scheme  to  accommodate  the 
"wauts  of  the  western  suburbs.  For  a  rural  chapel  it  has  all 
the  charm  of  exquisite  taste,  convenience  and  comfort. 


CLAYTON  cnuRcn. 

CHURCH  OF  THE  MESSIAH— UNITARIAN, 

Corner  of  Ninth  and  Olive  streets,  is  the  parent  church.      Rev. 
Jno.  Snyder  is  pastor. 

The  record  of  this  church  for  benevolence  is  truly  remark- 
able. Under  the  lead  of  Rev.  W.  G.  Eliot,  D.  D.,  who  retired 
from  the  pastorate  some  years  ago,  it  v.^as  noted  for  its  leader- 
ship in  ever}^  good  work.  Washington  University  and  INIary 
Institute  received  their  greatest  support  from  the  leading 
members  of  this  body.  The  good  to  a  connnon  humanity  that 
has  emanated  from  this  congregation  would  be  hard  to  enumer- 
ate. Its  operations  have  been  always  upon  the  largest  and  the 
most  generous  scale. 


112 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


CHURCH  OF  THE  UNITY— UNITARIAN, 

Is  situated  on  the  corner  of  Park  and  Armstrong  avenues.  It 
is  a  fine,  tastj  edifice,  built  of  stone,  facing  Lafayette  Park. 
Rev.  J.  C.  Larned,  pastor. 

It  is  situated  in  one  of  the  most  hopeful  parts  of  the  city. 
Surrounded  l)y  wealth,  elegance  and  culture,  it  must  in  time 
become  a  large  body.  The  church  is  blessed  with  freedom 
from  debt,  a  capital  leader  and  a  generous  membership. 


ST.  GEORGE'S  CHURCH— EPISCOPAL, 


Is  located  on  the  corner  of 
Rev.  R.  A.  Holland,  rector, 

It  is   undoubtedly 
one  of  the  best  located 
and    most    elegantly 
finished    churches  in     _ 
the  West. 

The  appointments 
are  all  in  the  line  of 
comfort  and  good 
taste. 

The  popular  min- 


Chestnut  and   Beaumont   streets. 


ister,  the  grand  or- 
gan, and  the  charm- 
ing music,  lend  much 
to  make  it  the  great 
center  of  religious  in- 
fluence it  is  acknowl- 
edged to  be. 

Many  of  our  most 
wealthy  and  success- 
ful citizens  are  iden- 
tified with  it. 


ST.  GEORGE'S  CHUUCH. 


CHURCHES. 


113 


MOUNT  CALVARY  CHURCH— EPISCOPAL, 

Is  a  beautiful  brick  edifice  corner  of  Jefferson  and  Lafayette 
avenues.  Its  interior  is  neatly  furnished  and  has  the  air  of 
comfort.  Seats  are  free  to  all.  Services  are  held  morning 
and  evening.     Rev.  B.  E.  Reed  is  the  worthy  rector. 


MOUNT  CALVARY  CHURCH. 

CHRIST  CHURCH— EPISCOPAL, 

Corner  of  Locust  and  Thirteenth  streets,  fronts  upon  Missouri 
Park,  and  when  completed  will  be  a  tasty  and  ornamental 
edifice.  Rev.  Montgomery  Schuyler,  D.  D.,  is  its  beloved  and 
honored  rector.  Tliis  church  was  among  the  number  driven 
westward  by  the  march  of  business.  Its  original  location  was 
Fifth  and  Chestnut  streets,  where  the  Laclede  Hotel  now 
stands,  and  was  torn  down  in  1859.  , 

I 

TRINITY   CHURCH— EPISCOPAL.  i 


This  is  a  gem  of  architectural  beautv,  situated  on  the  cor- 
ner  of  Eleventh  Street  and  Washington  Avenue. 

Rev.  Geo.  C.  Betts  is  the  rector.  The  bishop  of  the  diocese, 
Rt.  Rev.  C.  F.  Robertson,  D.  D.,  may  also  be  found  at  this 
church  when  in  the  city. 


114 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 

Corner  of  Lucas  Place  and  Fourteenth  Street,  is  a  beautiful 
brick  edifice. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  ele- 
gant structures  in  the  city, 
comniandin<2;  one  of  tile  most 
elio-ible  locations  for  a  church . 
It  fronts  on  Lucas  Place  and 
is  directly  west  of  Missouri 
Park,  one  of  the  choice 
breathing  spots  of  the  city. 

Under  the  i:)astorate  of 
Rev.  Dr.  BuUard,  this  church 
made  the  selection  of  its  pres- 
ent site,  evincing  no  little 
faith  in  the  future  growth  of 
the  city  in  that  direction. 

Rev.  H.  D.  Ganse,  D.D., 
is  the  pastor.  The  house  is 
'  elegantly  furnished  and  well 
appointed.  It  has  always 
been  an  influential  liody  of 
Christians,  numbering  within 

FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  itg  folds  UKUiy  who  hlWC  bcCU 

noted  for  their  liberalitv  as  well  as  their  success  in  business. 


SECOND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 

Is  located  on  the  corner  of  Lucas  Place  and  Seventeenth  Street. 
Rev.  S.  J.  Niccolls,  D.D.,  pastor. 

The  members  of  this  church  formerly  worshiped  for  many 
years  in  the  old  church,  corner  Fifth  and  Walnut  streets,  which 
was  sold.  The  Temple  building  was  afterwards  erected  upon 
its  old  site. 

It  is  a  handsome  stone  structure,  tasty  and  attractive.  This 
church  is  the  center  of  a  vcrv  lar^e  religious  influence  m  the 
city.  Its  members  are  not  only  from  wealthy  Inisiness  circles, 
but  comprises  many  of  the  most  eminent  among  the   different 


CHURCHES.  115 

professions.  Culture,  piety  and  good  works  abound  with  this 
body  of  Christians.  Their  pastor  is  noted  as  an  organizer  and 
promoter  of  the  various  activities  of  the  church. 

WASHINGTON  AVENUE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 

Is  a  new  stone  edifice,  now  in  process  of  completion,  on  the 
corner  of  Washington  and  Compton  avenues.  This  new  organ- 
ization, is  an  outgrowth  from  the  AValnut  Street  Presbyterian 
Church.  Rev.  James  H.  Brookes,  D.D. ,  pastor.  It  is  expected 
that  Dr.  Brookes  will  become  pastor  of  the  new  congregation. 
Dr.  Brookes  is  one  of  the  oldest  pastors  in  St.  Louis.  His 
profound  scholarship,  successful  leadership  and  noble  Christian 
sj)irit  has  given  him  a  large  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  Christian 
people  of  the  city. 

CENTRAL  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 

Corner  of  Lucas  and  Garrison  avenues,  Rev.  R.  G.  Brank, 
D.  D.,  pastor,  is  one  of  our  newest  and  most  elegant  structures. 

No  pains  have  been  spared  to  make  it  not  only  handsome 
but  comfortal)le  and  convenient.  It  is  furnished  with  taste 
and  is  wanting  in  nothing  to  make  it  a  beautiful  piece  of  arch- 
itecture that  commands  universal  admiration. 

Dr.  Brank  is  known  as  one  of  our  most  impressive  pulpit 
speakers  and  one  of  the  best  of  pastors. 

The  Presbyterians  claim  twenty  churches,  with  a  member- 
ship of  five  thousand  and  seventy-five,  and  some  eight  thousand 
scholars  in  their  Sunday-schools. 

PINE  STREET  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 

This  is  a  modest  structure  on  the  corner  of  Eleventh  and 
Pine  streets.  Rev.  E.  H.  Rutherford,  D.  D.,  is  its  efficient 
pastor. 

NORTH   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH 

Is  a  fine  brick  church,  corner  of  Chambers  and  Eleventh 
streets.  Rev.  W.  C.  Falconer,  D.D.,  is  its  pastor.  This 
church  has  held  its  own  for  some  years,  and  done  good  work 
in  the  northern  end  of  the  city. 


116 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


PILGRIM  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH. 

Pilo-rim  Church,  corner  Washington  and  Ewing  avenues, 
Rev.  C.  L.  Gooclcll,  D.D.,  pastor,  was  organized  December 
5,  1866,  Avith  forty-five  members.  It  now  numbers,  in  its 
twelfth  year,  five  hundred  and  twenty-five,  with  an  annual 
benevolence  of  some  ten  thousand  dollars.  Its  house  of  wor- 
ship is  very 
attractive 
and  commo- 
dious. It 
is  built  of 
stone,  with 
a  spire  two 
hundredand 
thirty  feet 
high  ;  it  will 
seat  twelve 
hundred  ;  it 
cost, with  all 
its  furnish- 
ings, about 
onehundred 
and  fifty 
thousand 
dollars.  In 
its  tower  is 
the  splendid 
0 1  i  p  h  a  n  t 
chime  of 
ten       bells. 


weighing 
eleven  thou- 
sand pounds 
one  of  the 
three  orfour 
PILGRIM  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH.  laro^est   and 

most  musical  in  the  country.     It  was  the  gift  of  Dr.  R.  W.  Oli- 
phant,  in  memory  of  his  deceased  wife  and  son.     There  is  also 


CHURCHES. 


117 


connected  with  this  a  valuable  tower  clock,  striking  musical 
quarter  notes,  after  the  manner  of  St.  Mary's  Church,  Cam- 
bridge, England,  and  the  Parliament  buildings,  London.  The 
air  pla^^ed  is  by  Handel,  and  thought  to  be  the  finest  ever 
adapted  to  bells.  The  clock  and  quarters,  constructed  by 
Howard,  of  Boston,  are  the  gift  of  Mrs.  C.  L.  Goodell,  wife 
of  the  pastor,  in  memory  of  her  father,  Gov.  Erastus  Fair- 
banks, of  Vermont.  This  church  is  furnished  with  parlors  and 
all  modern  conveniences.  It  has  had  a  remarkable  growth, 
and  numbers  in  its  membership  some  of  our  most  wealthy  and 
influential  citizens. 


TRINITARIAN  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH. 

There  are  five  Congregational  churches  in  this  city,  with 
an  aggregate  membership  of  about  one  thousand. 

The  Trinitarian  Congregational  Church,  corner  Tenth  and 
Locust  streets,  is  the  oldest.  It  was  organized  March  14, 
1852,  and  has  had  a  prosperous  and  efficient  life  in  the  heart 
of  this  great  city  for 
twenty-six  years. 
Rev.T.M.Post,D.D., 
who  was  its  first 
pastor,  is  still  its  es- 
teemed and  beloved 
shepherd.  A  man  of 
wide  and  choice  cul- 
ture, of  many  and 
varied  gifts,  his  Ions; 
life  in  the  West  de- 
voted to  shaping  and 
£i;ivm2:  character  to  churches  and  institutions  of  Icarniui;,  has 
been  like  the  dew  upon  Lebanon.  The  church  numbers  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  members. 

This  is  the  mother  church  of  Cono^reffationalism  in  this 
section  and  has  sent  out  many  members  to  form  new  interests 
in  this  city  and  in  the  suburbs.  Its  influence  has  been  marked, 
and  it  has  not  been  behind  in  tlio  promotion  of  education  and 
in  all  the  benevolent  work  of  the  denomination. 


118 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


SECOND  BAPTIST  CHURCH. 

The  Second  Baptist  Church  is  located  on  the  corner  of 
Beaumont  and  Locust  streets.  The  cha[)el  has  1>oeu  occupied 
for  sonic  months  since  the  church  has  ])ecn  removed  from  its  old 
home  on  the  corner  of  Sixth  and  Locust  streets.  The  main 
building  is  in  course  of  construction,  and  is  fast  approaching 
completion.  It  promises  to  be  one  of  the  most  handsome  and 
imposing  structures  in  the  city. 

As  in  the  past,  so 
now  it  may  ])e  count- 
ed among  the  most 
influential  churches. 
Its  pulpit  has  been 
graced  with  such  men 
as  J.B.Jeter,  D.D., 
Rev.  Galusha  Ander- 
son, D.D.,  and  more 
recently  by  Rev.  A. 
H.  Burlingham,D.D. 
and  now  presided 
over  by  Rev.  W.  W. 
Boyd,  whose  growing 
influence  gives  prom- 
ise of  much  useful- 
ness. 
Its  membership  has 
SECOND  BAPTIST  CHURCH.  included  such  men  as 

Hon.W.  M.McPherson,  Hon.  Daniel  B.  Gale,  Hon.  Marshall 
Brotherton,  and  other  noble  spirits  that  have  gone  to  their 
reward,  leaving  behind  them  noble  examples  of  right  living. 

THIRD  BAPTIST  CHURCH. 

The  Third  Baptist  Church  is  located  on  Clark  Avenue, 
corner  of  Fourteenth  Street.  Rev.  Geo.  A.  Lofton,  D.D.,  is  its 
present  pastor,  known  for  his  scholarly  attainments  and  his 
efficiency  as  a  pastor.  The  building  is  of  brick,  trimmed  with 
stone,  and,  while  it  makes  no  claim  to  any  special  beauty,  it  is 
commodious,  eas}^  of  access,  and  has  a  cheerful  interior- 


CHURCHES. 


119 


This  church  was  organized  during  the  ministry  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Jeter  witli  the  Second  Baptist  Church.  Thirty  members 
were  dismissed  from  the  Second  Church  to  constitute  this  body 
in  December,  1850.  The  ministry  of  Rev.  Jno.  Teasdale, 
and  Rev.  Washington  Barnhurst  is  still  very  dearly  cherished 
in  this  church.  Manj^  of  their  relatives  still  find  their  religious 
home  here,  and  cling  to  it  with  great  tenderness. 

FOURTH  BAPTIST  CHURCH, 

Located  on  the  corner  of  Twelfth  and  North  Market  streets. 
It  is  a  tasty  brick  building  fronting  on  Jackson  Place.  Rev. 
J.  V.  Scotield  is  pastor.  His  efficiency  as  a  Christian  worker 
is  known  in  this  city.  The  zeal  manifested  by  him  in  helping 
forward  the  erection  of  the  Third  Baptist  Church  in  former 
years  is  fresh  in  the  minds  of  those  who  toiled  for  its  completion. 

KIRKWOOD  BAPTIST  CHURCH 

Is  a  neat,  cosy  brick  chapel,  recently  erected  to  meet  a  want 
long  felt  by  the  Baptist  folks  of  this  suburban   village.     It  is 


light  and    airy,    and    has    a  cheerful    as[)ect    about   it. 
church  has  orrown  somewhat  since  it  has  had  a  home. 


The 


120 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


HEBREW  CONGREGATION— TEMPLE  OF  THE  GATES 

OF  TRUTH, 

Corner  of  Seventeenth  and  Pine  streets.  Rev.  Dr.  Sonne- 
schein  is  the  officiating  minister.  He  is  ii  distinguished  Rabbi, 
of  liberal  education,  leads  in  advanced  ideas,  and  is  a  man  of 
considerable  force  in  his  pulpit  efforts. 


TEMPLE  OF  THE  GATES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  Temple  cost  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 
was  dedicated  in  18G9.  The  congregation  are  regarded  as  re- 
formers, and  are  progressive,  and  while  they  believe  in  all  the 
essentials  of  the  Hebrew  faith,  they  seek  to  give  form  to  their 
worship  in  keeping  with  the  usages  of  modern  society. 


CHURCHES. 


121 


MT.  SINAI  CHAPEL. 

Mt.  Sinai  Cemetery  is  the  Jewish  buiying  ground,  situated 
on  the  Gravois  road,  south  of  Riv^er  Des  Peres.  The  chapel 
is  located  on  the  grounds,  a  neat  brick  and  stone  structure, 
built  at  a  cost  of  about  four  thousand  dollars.  It  is  used  for 
funeral  ceremonies.  The  Rabbis  of  the  various  Hebrew  con- 
gregations officiate  when  occasion  requires. 


MOUNT  SINAI  CHAPEL. 


MERCHANTS'  EXCHANGE. 


This  trade  palace  is  justly  the  pride  of  St.  Louis.  No 
structure  on  this  continent  devoted  to  like  purj)oses,  and,  in- 
deed, none  of  the  exchange  buildings  in  all  Europe  can  at  all 
compare  with  it  in  point  of  magnitude  and  positive  elegance 
and  beauty.  The  building  is  located  with  a  frontage  of  two 
hundred  and  thirt3'-three  feet  on  Third  Street  with  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-seven  feet  on  Pine  and  Chestnut  streets. 

This  gigantic  pile  of  happy  proportions  and  harmony  in 
detail,  of  the  modern  Italian  style,  is  built  chiell}^  of  Warrens- 
burg  limestone,  a  native  of  our  own  State.  The  Doric  portico, 
the  emblematic  figures  sculptured  in  relief,  the  grand  door- 
ways, and  the  rich,  polished  plate-glass  windows,  give  the  ex- 
terior an  appearance  of  magnificence  and  architectural  beauty. 
The  main  stairway  is  built  chiefly  of  American  walnut,  with 
several  varieties  of  hard  woods,  used  for  decoration.  The  ap- 
pearance to  the  observer  is  simply  one  of  pleasing  grandeur  in 
keeping  with  the  splendid  edifice. 

The  Merchants'  Exchange  secured  a  corporate  existence  in 
March,  1863,  and  was  known  for  years  as  the  "Union  Mer- 
chants' Exchange."  An  amendatory  act  changed  the  style  to 
the  "Merchants'  Exchange  of  St.  Louis." 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  was  a  body  that  had  existed 
previously,  for  the  promotion  of  business.  By  an  act  of  the 
legislature  this  corporation  was  the  means  of  giving  this  noble 
structure,  dedicated  to  the  commercial  purposes  of  the  city. 
The  Merchants'  Exchange  rent  the  grand  hall,  with  the  ofiices 
and  directors'  room  attached,  from  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
Association,  at  an  annual  rental  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars. 

Some  one  thousand  five  hundred  members  comprise  the 
Exchange.  Initiation  fee  is  now  one  hundred  dollars,  with  an 
annual  assessment  of  twenty-five  dollars. 

[133] 


124  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Daily  sessions  are  held  from  11a.  m.  to  1  p.  m.  All  the 
interests  of  trade  are  represented  here,  and  operations  are 
facilitated  by  the  meeting  of  the  buyer  and  the  seller. 

The  markets  of  the  world  are  kept  constantly  reported  upon 
appropriate  bulletins.  There  is  a  large  reading-room  attached 
to  the  grand  hall,  in  which  may  be  found  the  representative 
journals  of  the  land. 

Questions  and  disputes  are  settled  by  committees  of  arbitra- 
tion and  appeal,  thus  saving  frequently  vexatious  and  unprofit- 
able litigation.  Boards  of  inspection  are  appointed,  whose 
certificate  of  grade,  quality  and  condition  of  any  product  pro- 
motes confidence  and  safety  in  many  important  transactions. 

The  importance  of  the  Exchange  in  promoting  the  com- 
merce of  the  city  can  not  be  adequately  estimated.  The  system 
and  uniformity  it  has  encouraged  in  business,  the  time  it  saves 
to  thousands  of  dealers  by  having  one  place  of  meeting  to  make 
transactions,  the  aggregation  of  wealth  and  influence  in  pro- 
moting enterprises  for  public  good,  all  attest  the  value  of  such 
an  institution  to  the  traffic  of  a  large  city. 

The  Exchange  Hall  is  .worthy  of  note.  Occupymg  the  full 
leno-th  of  the  buildino;  above  the  first  floor,  it  is  one  hundred 
feet  wide,  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  feet  in  length,  and  is 
seventy-nine  feet  high.  Its  magnificent  windows,  sixty-one 
in  number,  give  it  abundance  of  light  and  air.  The  ceiling 
is  frescoed  and  adorned  with  panels,  within  which  are  grace- 
ful figures  symbolical  of  the  nations  of  the  world.  It  is 
finished  with  great  care,  and  shows  a  wealth  of  design  as  well 
as  an  artistic  finish.  A  gallery,  supported  by  rich  brackets, 
encircles  the  great  hall,  to  which  visitors  are  admitted. 

The  officers  of  the  Exchange  are  as  follows :  President, 
Geo.  Bain ;  Vice-Presidents,  Henry  C.  Haarstick  and  Craig 
Alexander,  who  are  among  our  most  efficient  and  valued  citi- 
zens ;  Secretary,  Geo.  H.  Morgan  ;  Assistant  Secretaries,  D. 
R.  Whitmore  and  D.  H.  Bartlett,  both  young  men,  and  whose 
nniform  politeness  have  won  for  them  the  universal  regard  of 
the  members  ;  Doorkeeper  and  Janitor,  Chas.  Crcighton. 

It  will  not  be  considered  out  of  place  to  make  special  men- 
tion of  Mr.  Crcighton.  He  is  a  native  St.  Louisan,  in  his 
forty-second  year,  and  has  occupied  his  present  position  uow 


THE    BRIDGE.  125 

seventeen  years  with  signal  ability  and  satisfaction.  lie  knows 
every  member  entitled  to  the  privilege  of  the  floor,  and  with 
uniform  urbanity  has  won  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  those 
who  daily  frequent  the  hall. 

The  lower  part  of  the  building  is  occupied  by  banks  and 
insurance  offices,  Avhich,  with  the  rent  of  the  Exchange  Hall 
and  offices  through  the  building,  form  a  handsome  revenue  to 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  Association. 


THE   BRIDGE. 


No  structure  upon  the  American  continent  deserves  any 
more  unqualified  praise  for  practical  utility  and  architectural 
beauty  than  the  great  steel  Bridge  that  spans  the  JNIississippi 
River  at  St.  Louis.  It  is  a  standing  monument  to  the  ability 
of  the  great  minds  who  conceived  and  carried  it  forward  to 
final  completion.  St.  Louis  has  always  wanted  a  bi-idge  that 
would  bring  her  into  more  intimate  relations  with  the  great 
State  of  Illinois,  and  render  herself  more  accessible  to  the 
great  trading  region  east  of  her,  that  looked  for  supplies  from 
this  point. 

The  railway  companies  have  long  urged  the  scheme  that 
travel  and  traffic  might  be  better  handled  and  promoted.  But 
the  unsettled  question  of  a  suitable  foundation,  the  jealousy 
of  rival  interests,  and  other  hindrances,  which  clustered  about 
the  completion  of  so  important  an  undertaking,  retarded  the 
march  of  progress. 

The  new  era  the  Bridge  brought  to  St,  Louis  is  not  easily 
portrayed.  It  must  be  felt  and  experienced  by  all  the  branches 
of  trade  and  commerce  ;  the  increased  comfort  in  travel ;  the 
cheapening  of  freight,  and  the  enlarged  intercourse  it  affords. 
All  these  items  enter  into  the  credit  due  to  its  generous  bene- 
factors. The  cry  has  been  heard  often  by  opponents  that  it 
would  obstruct  the  river ;    that  St.   Louis  would  be  only  a 


THE    BRIDGE.  127 

way-station  on  the  great  highway  ;  that  freight  and  passengers 
would  pass  through,  and  we  get  no  l)enetit. 

St.  Louis,  among  the  great  cities  of  the  continent,  could 
not  stop  to  put  an  embargo  upon  any  project  looking  to  the 
promotion  of  a  common  good.  The  highway  of  the  nation 
must  be  unobstructed  by  an}--  narrow,  sellish,  or  local  intei'est, 
so  that  the  world's  traffic  shall  reach  its  destination  with  all 
speed.  St,  Louis,  with  all  her  highways  of  steel  and  iron, 
penetrating  every  section  of  this  great  land,  with  her  wiiter- 
path  to  the  sea,  can  and  Avill  assert  herself,  and  secure,  as  she 
has  in  the  past,  that  share  of  commerce  she  rightfully  claims. 
She  bids  for  business,  and  is  willing  to  take  her  chances  with 
competing  centers  that  struggle  to  outrival  her  ;  but  she  is  not 
willing  to  be  tardy  in  those  enterprises  which  promote  public 
interests. 

The  extreme  length  of  the  Bridge,  including  approaches,  is 
6,220  feet,  and  its  extreme  width  is  54  feet.  The  Bridge  proper 
with  its  three  spans,  including  abutments,  is  2,046  feet.  The 
three  spans  are  formed  with  ribbed  arches  made  of  chrome 
steel.  The  center  span  is  520  feet,  the  two  end  ones  are  502 
feet  each.  The  Bridge,  including  the  tunnel  under  the  city,  is 
11,000  feet  in  length,  finding  its  terminus  in  the  Union  Depot. 
The  tunnel  extends  from  the  Brido:e,  runnino;  under  Washinslon 
Avenue  to  Eighth  Street,  thence  south,  passing  the  new  Post- 
office  and  Custom-house.  Connection  is  made  with  this  new 
building  by  means  of  side-tracks,  for  the  convenient  handling  of 
the  mails.  The  entire  cost  of  the  Bridge  was  over  ten  million 
dollars.  The  tunnel  cost  about  one  million  dollars.  The  rail- 
way passages  run  lieneath  the  carriage-ways  and  are  each  about 
fifteen  feet  in  the  clear  and  eighteen  feet  high.  The  Bridge  is 
illuminated  always  at  night.  Tasty  gaslamps  adorn  the  struc- 
ture, with  other  ornamental  figures  that  give  it  an  air  of  elegance 
and  beauty.  Captain  James  B.  Eads  was  Chief  Engineer,  and 
Col.  Henr}'^  Flad  the  Assistant  Chief  Engineer. 

To  these  gentlemen  and  those  Avho  came  forward  with  their 
means  to  promote  the  scheme,  the  city  of  St.  Louis  owes 
eternal  o;ratitude,  while  the  structure  itself  is  an  enduring 
monument  to  the  skill  and  enterprise  of  those  intimately  iden- 
tified with  its  construction. 


THE   UNION  DEPOT. 


THE  PAUSING  PLACE  OF  THE  WANDERERS. 

St.  Louis  is  a  center  toward  which  the  great  highways  of 
travel    converge   from   the  distant  North,   the  far  East,  the 

gleaming  South,  and 
the  wonderful  West. 
The  Union  Depot  on 
Poplar  Street,  is  the 
grounds  where  the 
various  railroads  cen- 
tenng  here  find  a 
common  meetinor 
place.  Here  the  wan- 
derers may  rest.  The 
Union  Depot  often 
presents  striking 
scenes  and  incidents 
in  travel.  They  are 
ever  cominc;  and  ffo- 
ing.  The  thousands 
who  pass  that  way, 
and  pause  at  that  fo- 
cal point  every  week, 
represent  all  the  races 
of  mankind.  Dusky 
wayfarers  from  the 
far  Orient,  from  Jed- 
do  and  from  Pekin, 
from  Java  and  from 
India,  pass  that  way, 
and  pause  on  their 
journey.      Emigrants   from  the  valley  of  the  Don,  and   the 

[138] 


UNION    DKPOT. 


129 


Kubanka  en  route  to  Kansas  ;  commercial  travelers,  hale  and 
careless  fellows,  who  know  a  good  deal  of  the  ways  of  the 
world,  and  carefully  hold  on  to  their  "  grip-sacks  ;"  unsophis- 
ticated youths  from  out-of-the-way  counties,  on  their  way  to  visit 
grandpa  for  the  lirst  time  ;  coy  country  girls,  who  liave  caution, 
courage,  and  discretion  hidden  under  their  coyness,  traveling 
to  visit  a  sister  married  out  West ;  in  fact,  experienced  and  in- 
experienced people,  black,  red,  yellow,  and  white  men,  from 
Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  the  wilds  of  America,  all  i^ass 
the  Union  Depot,  and  pause  for  a  moment  in  their  flight. 

And  then,  the  citizens,  intent  on  earning  a  few  nickels  by 
transporting  passengers  and  baggage,  join  in  the  clamor  and 
add  to  the  confusion.  The  arrival  of  trains  containing  emi- 
grants from  the  East  always  excites  a  curious  interest  on  the 
part  of  the  spectator.  The  scenes  incident  to  such  arrivals 
are  illustrated  in  the  cut  below. 


ARRIVAL  OF  EMIGRANTS. 


And  so  the  tide  of  life  ebbs  and  flows,  and  for  the  great 
arteries  the  Union  Depot  serves  as  the  heart.  We  see  a  great 
throng  pass  through  to-day.  To-morrow  some  of  those  who 
are  in  Union  Depot  now  will  be  in  Texas,  some  in  Tennessee, 

9    . 


130  TOUR   or    ST.    LOUIS. 

some  in  Arkansas  and  Kansas,  while  some  others  will  be  hurry- 
ing to  the  East  through  Indiana  and  Ohio,  and  still  others  will 
breathe  the  fresh  air  which  sweeps  over  the  bosom  of  the 
Northern  lakes.  They  are  here  to-day  together,  but  to-morrow 
will  see  them  a  thousand  miles  apart,  and  hurrying,  still 
hurrying  on — far  toward  the  utmost  verge  of  the  continent. 
The  eyes  that  meet  to  day  will  meet  no  more. 

What  a  picture  of  the  life  of  our  age  can  be  examined  and 
studied  at  the  meeting  of  the  ways  in  Union  Depot !  Here 
the  streams  meet ;  for  a  moment  whirl  and  toss  about,  then 
divide  again  and  flow  on  and  on  till  whelmed  at  last  in  the 
ocean  of  oblivion.     Such  is  life. 


THE  RAILWAY  TUNNEL. 


Next  to  the  great  Steel  Bridge,  St.  Louis  may  well  rejoice 
over  the  achievements  in  the  Railway  Tunnel  that  links  the 
Bridge  with  the  Union  Depot. 

How  to  bring  the  many  railways  centering  at  this  point 
into  one  grand  meeting-place  from  which  all  arrivals  and 
departures  could  be  effected  and  at  the  same  time  avoid  the 
smoke,  noise  and  confusion  incident  to  such  immense  travel, 
was  a  question  long  discussed.  It  was  a  happy  conception  to 
place  the  approach  into  the  city  so  far  below  the  surface  as  to 
avoid  the  inconvenience  attendant  upon  the  running  of  trains 
through  the  business  portion  of  the  city. 

The  Tunnel  commences  at  the  west  end  of  the  Bridije 
and  runs  as  far  west  as  Seventh  Street,  where  it  makes  a  curve 
and  continues  south  in  the  line  of  Eighth  Street  as  far  as  Clarke 
Avenue ;  taking  a  curve  westward  at  this  point  it  finds  a  level 
with  the  Union  Depot. 


RAILWAY    TUNNEL.  131 

As  it  passes  along  Eighth  Street,  connection  is  made  by  side 
tracks  with  the  new  post-office,  whereby  the  greatest  possible 
facility  will  be  afforded  for  handling  of  all  mall  matter. 

The  total  length  of  the  Tunnel  is  four  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  eighty-sL\  feet.  Its  construction  was  conducted  by 
an  open  cut,  which  gave  the  workmen  the  greatest  possible 
advantage  in  building  it.  Its  road-bed  is  firmly  ballasted,  and 
carries  a  double  track.  The  great  arch  is  supported  by  nuis- 
sive  brick  walls,  and  is  pronounced  a  triumph  of  engineering 
skill  and  a  credit  to  those  who  brought  it  to  perfection. 

The  advantage  to  the  traveling  public  to  have  all  our  rail- 
ways centering  at  one  grand  depot  is  simply  incalculable. 
Untold  expenses  in  hack  fare,  loss  of  baggage,  inconvenience 
in  changing  from  one  road  to  another,  to  say  nothing  of  hun- 
dreds of  other  attendant  evils  that  would  otherwise  occur. 

These  annoyances  are  saved,  and  the  Tunnel  takes  its 
meed  of  credit  as  one  of  the  factors  in  promoting  comfort  in 
travel. 

Economy  in  the  expenses  of  the  railways  centering  thus  is 
no  inconsiderable  item  also  to  be  considered,  besides  the 
increased  facilities  that  are  afforded  to  the  immense  traffic 
incident  to  a  great  city. 

The  cost  of  the  entire  structure  was  something  over  one 
million  of  dollars. 


HON.  THOMAS   ALLEN. 


The  desire  universally  felt  to  learn  something  of  the  per- 
sonal history  of  those  men  who  have  acted,  and  are  acting,  a 
more  or  le'ss  prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  a  great  country,  is 
certainly  natural,  and  can  scarcely  be  esteemed  improper.  An 
extended  or  eulogistic  biography  of  the  living,  however,  ex- 
cept in  rare  cases,  seems  to  be  premature  and  out  of  place. 
It  may  be  set  down  as  a  general  truth,  under  such  circum- 
stances, that  either  a  strong  personal  regard  will  tempt  the 
writer  to  exaggerate  the  picture  he  is  to  draw,  and  to  add  here 
and  there  some  flattering  touches  ;  or  else  the  want  of  that 
intimate  and  actual  knowledge  which  can  penetrate  to  the  hid- 
den springs  of  the  whole  character — at  the  same  time  that  tes- 
timony no  longer  biased  by  personal  feelings  is  not  yet  within 
his  reach — will  leave  only  imperfect  and  distorted  lineaments, 
where  a  full  and  true  likeness  is  demanded. 

To  deal  with  personal  topics,  relating  either  to  the  living 
or  to  the  dead — but  more  especially  to  the  former — requires  a 
great  deal  of  delicate  discretion  :  for  the  false  and  too  partial 
estimates  of  a  friend  are  scarcely  less  to  be  avoided  than  the 
open  attacks  and  studied  depreciations  of  an  enemy.  In  the 
present  instance,  accordingly,  we  wave  the  formal  office  of  biog- 
rapher, and  shall  aim  simply  at  a  brief  record  of  what  we  be- 
lieve will  most  interest  the  reader  respecting  our  subject. 

Hon.  Thomas  Allen  comes  of  a  family  of  historic  reputa- 
tion in  Massachusetts.  His  grandfather,  whose  name  he  bears, 
was  a  respected  minister  of  the  town  of  Pittsfield — indeed  he 
was  the  first  pastor  to  have  charge  over  the  spiritual  interests 
of  the  inhabitants  of  that  place. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Allen  was  ordained  in  1764,  ten  years 
before  the  revolutionary  agitation  assumed  a  threatening  as- 
pect.    But  the  stern  old  pastor  was  not  lacking  in  sympathy 

[132] 


HON.  THOMAS  ALLEN.  133 

with  the  people  of  his  native  land,  nor  in  patriotism  when  the 
cause  of  liberty  called  for  the  services  of  the  sons  of  the  soil. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Allen  became  one  of  the  most  earnest  and  zeal- 
ous of  the  defenders  of  the  cause  of  American  Independence. 
When  at  length  hostilities  were  commenced  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  revolted  colonists,  Mr.  Allen  left  his  charge 
and  went  into  the  field.  He  served  as  chaplain  in  several  reg- 
iments, and,  according  to  tradition,  had  no  aversion  to  takin<r 
part  in  the  conflicts  and  sharing  in  the  dangers  incident  to  the 
position  of  a  combatant. 

When  Burgoyne  was  advancing  from  Canada,  to  co-operate 
with  the  British  forces  in  New  York,  in  crushing  the  patriot 
army,  the  brave  minister  aroused  his  people  at  Pittsfield,  and 
with  musket  in  hand  marched  with  them  to  share  in  the  dan- 
gers and  honors  of  Bennington.  This  action  acquired  for  him 
the  soubriquet  of  the  Fighting  Parson  of  Bennington  Fields. 

When  peace  came  at  last,  the  minister  returned  to  his 
chars^e  at  Pittsfield  :  and  while  he  was  faithful  in  ministering  in 
the  Word,  and  in  doctrine,  and  in  admonitions,  yet  his  patri- 
otic impulses  led  him  to  take  a  deep  interest  in  the  political 
welfare  of  his  country,  and  he  became  noted  as  an  able  politi- 
cian, adopting  as  his  own  the  Jeffersonian  principles  as  applied 
to  government. 

Eev.  Thomas  Allen,  having  passed  a  long  and  stainless  life, 
died  at  Pittsfield  in  1811,  leaving  numerous  descendants  to 
perpetuate  the  name.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  Pittsfield  pas- 
torate by  his  son,  the  Rev.  William  Allen,  who  subsequently 
became  president  of  Bowdoin  College,  and  was  quite  well  known 
as  an  author  in  New  England  half  a  century  ago. 

Nine  brothers  and  three  sisters  constituted  the  family  of 
Rev.  Thomas  Allen  at  the  time  of  his  death.  All  of  these 
were  persons  of  high  social  standing  and  more  than  ordinary 
intellectual  attainments. 

Jonathan  Allen,  father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  a 
man  of  no  little  force  of  character.  Several  times  he  repre- 
sented his  native  county  in  the  lower  branch  of  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature,  and  also  in  the  upper  house.  During  the  war  of 
1812,  he  was  a  quartermaster  in  the  army,  and  was  stationed  at 
Pittsfield,  where  at  that  time  was  maintained  a  large  recruiting 


134  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

station  and  prison  depot.  Subsequently  he  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Berkshire  Agricultural  Society,  which  proved 
to  be  the  model  for  most  of  the  agricultural  societies  in  this 
country,  and  which  still  maintains  a  high  rank  as  one  of  the 
most  noted  of  the  societies  organized  to  promote  the  interests 
of  the  farming  class.  Of  this  society  Mr.  Allen  was  several 
times  made  president. 

As  early  as  1809  he  became  interested  in  the  improvement  of 
American  flocks,  and  was  one  of  the  first  importers  of  tine 
wool  sheep.  To  carry  out  his  design  in  this  matter  he  made 
a  voyage  to  Europe  and  visited  Lisbon,  where  he  purchased  a 
select  invoice  of  fine  merinos  from  the  famous  flock  of  the 
Count  of  Montaco.  Mr.  Allen  was  a  man  of  considerable  cul- 
ture, and  his  essays  and  occasional  addresses  which  have  been 
preserved  show  him  to  have  been  a  gentleman  of  no  little  vigor 
of  thought. 

Jonathan  Allen  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  was 
Elizabeth  Marsh,  who  was  a  grand-daughter  of  Col.  Israel 
Williams,  noted  as  a  loyalist  during  the  revolutionary  war. 
Col.  Williams  in  his  dav  Avas  the  most  distinguished  member 
of  a  family  which  in  ante-revolutionary  times  had  been  famous 
for  its  long  array  of  divines,  jurists,  and  soldiers.  This  union 
resulted  in  two  children.  By  the  death  of  this  lady  Mr.  Allen 
was  left  with  a  family  yet  in  infancy,  and  reason  and  policy 
alike  suggested  another  alliance.  Accordingly  he  united  him- 
self with  Eunice  Williams  Earned,  daughter  of  Darius  Earned, 
of  Pittsfield.  and  grand-daughter  of  that  Col.  Williams  already 
mentioned.     Of  this  union  eight  children  were  born. 

Hon.  Thomas  Allen,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  is  the  third 
child  of  Jonathan  and  Eunice  W.  Earned  Allen,  of  Pitts- 
field,  and  was  born  August  29,  1813.  At  this  time  the  parents 
of  Thomas  Allen  resided  on  the  glebe  of  one  hundred  acres, 
which,  with  other  lands,  had  been  assigned  in  accordance  with 
provincial  law  to  the  first  mhiister  of  the  town.  The  Allen 
homestead  was  situated  not  more  than  two  hundred  yards  from 
the  center  of  the  village. 

The  scenery  about  Pittsfield  is  charming,  with  hills  and 
dales  and  mountain  slopes,  and  purling  brooks,  with  here  and 
there  meadows  and  farms,  and  groves  of  ancient  elms,  and 


HON.   THOMAS  ALLEN.  135 

venerable  farm-houses  surrounded  by  gardens  and  orchards, 
which  altogether  presents  a  picture  of  beauty  and  loveliness 
well  calculated  to  make  those  who  constantly  gaze  upon  such 
a  landscape  stronger,  nobler,  better.  It  was  amid  such  scenes 
as  these  that  Mr.  Allen,  passed  the  days  of  his  childhood  and 
early  youth. 

When  of  a  suitable  age  he  attended  the  ' '  Academy ' '  of 
Pittsfield,  for  a  short  time,  when  his  course  was  cut  short  by 
the  removal  of  his  father  and  family  to  a  farm  some  miles 
from  the  village.  The  old  method  of  common-school  instruc- 
tion still  prevailed,  and  the  opportunities  of  advancement  in 
scholarship  in  a  country  school  were  exceedingly  limited.  In 
winter  the  neighborhood  school  was  presided  over  by  a  master 
who  laid  down  the  ferule  with  the  coming  of  the  spring-birds, 
and  found  more  congenial  occupation  in  cultivatmg  the  growing 
crops.  In  summer,  a  ma'am  ruled  in  the  country  school.  It 
would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  the  best  educational  results 
under  such  circumstances.  Yet  it  was  in  schools  so  conducted 
that  Mr.  Allen  laid  the  foundation  of  the  solid  scholarship  and 
extensive  information  which  is  so  prominent  a  characteristic  of 
the  man. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  much  of  the  progress  in 
learning  made  in  these  youthful  days  was  due  to  the  refinement 
and  culture  which  pervaded  the  home  of  the  Aliens.  Into 
that  home  guests  w^ere  welcomed  Avliose  conversation  must 
have  been  lessons  to  the  younger  members  of  the  family. 

The  Allen  farm  lay  along  the  banks  of  the  charming  Hou- 
satonic  ;  and  here,  it  is  probable,  the  subject  of  this  article 
acquired  that  taste  for  rural  pursuits  and  pastimes,  which  is 
still  a  predominent  feature  in  his  character.  His  father's 
meadows  in  summer  time  was  his  Arcadia.  The  trout  in  the 
brook,  the  woodcock  that  nestled  in  the  alders,  quails  and 
snipes,  in  turn  became  a  prey  to  the  youthful  sportsman.  He 
became  an  excellent  marksman,  and  a  skillful  angler.  But 
Hon,  Thomas  Allen,  even  as  a  boy,  had  higher  aspirations  than 
to  make  hay,  shoot  woodcock  in  the  meadows,  or  capture  the 
sportive,  speckled  trout.  In  the  midst  of  this  dreamy,  yet 
active  life  of  youth,  an  event  happened  at  Pittsfield  Avhich 
doubtless  has  exerted  a  marked  influence  over  the  subsequent 


136  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

career  of  Mr.  Allen.  Professor  Chester  Dewey,  having 
resigned  his  chair  at  Williams  College,  established  a  seminary, 
since  become  quite  famous,  known  as  the  Berkshire  Gymnasium, 
at  Pittsfield.  Perhaps  this  circumstance  confirmed  the  already 
expressed  purpose  of  the  elder  Allen  to  give  his  son  a  liberal 
education,  and,  accordingly,  Thomas  was  entered  as  a  student 
in  the  Berkshire  Gymnasium,-  where  he  completed  his  prepara- 
tory course. 

It  was  while  a  student  in  this  institution  that  Mr.  Allen 
acquired  a  taste  for  literary  composition,  which  has  in  no  small 
measure  influenced  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  The  youths 
at  that  institution  published  a  weekly  paper,  of  which  Mr. 
Allen  %vas  an  editor  and  contributor.  A  file  of  this  old-time 
amateur  journal  is  still  preserved  in  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum. 

Having  been  fitted  for  college,  Mr.  Allen  entered  a  student 
at  Union  College  in  1829,  having  attained  his  sixteenth  year 
but  a  few  days  prior  to  the  commencement  of  his  first  terra. 
He  maintained  a  good  standing  in  his  classes,  and  graduated 
in  1832.  In  consequence  of  his  having  left  the  college  a  few 
days  before  that  fixed  upon  for  conferring  the  graduation 
honors  he  received  no  award  of  honors  from  the  faculty.  He 
was  elected  to  the  position  of  a  valedictorian  to  the  class  by 
the  Philomathean  Society,  and  delivered  an  address  on  the 
occasion,  which  obtained  for  him  much  applause. 

Mr.  Allen  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  a  short  time 
before  his  term  at  college  had  expired.  He  resolved  to  pursue 
that  study  with  all  diligence,  but  was  compelled  to  flee  from 
Albany  on  account  of  the  approach  of  the  Asiatic  cholera 
scouro-e,  which  raged  with  great  virulence  there.  Before  he 
could  resume  his  studies  his  father  had  sufiered  heavy  pecu- 
niary losses,  which  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  proceed 
as  before. 

Mr.  Allen  was  thus  thrown  upon  his  own  resources  at  the 
age  of  twenty  years.  His  father  gave  him  twenty-five  dollars, 
and  he  set  out  for  New  York,  determined  to  win  for  himself  a 
place  in  the  ranks  of  the  men  of  the  metropolis.  He  arrived 
in  that- city  on  the  18th  of  October,  1832,  and  took  lodging  at 
a  private  boarding-house,  at  the  corner  of  Broadway  and  Wall 
Street.     His  stock  of  funds  was  not  sufficient  to  allow  him  to 


HON     THOMAS  ALLEN.  '         137 

lead  a  life  of  ease.  He  was  compelled  to  sustain  himself 
while  he  carried  out  his  original  design  of  preparing  himself 
for  the  practice  of  the  law.  Fortunately,  the  law  student 
found  a  place  in  the  office  of  Messrs.  Hatch  &  Cambrcleng, 
attorneys  at  law,  Wall  Street.  His  position  was  that  of  a 
clerk,  with  the  privilege  of  reading  the  books,  and  the  duty  of 
doing  much  work,  for  all  of  which  he  received  the  sum  of 
three  hundred  dollars  per  annum. 

In  1834  Mr,  Allen  became  the  editor  of  the  Farn^ly  Maga- 
zine^ an  illustrated  monthl}-  journal  published  by  J.  S.  Red- 
field.  The  duties  of  this  position  were  performed  during 
moments  snatched  from  the  intervals  of  other  employments. 
About  this  time,  Mr.  Allen  was  engaged  by  the  leading  law- 
book publishers  of  New  York  to  assist  in  preparing  a  digest  of 
the  laws  of  that  State  from  the  earliest  times,  which  service 
he  performed  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  who  employed  him, 
and  received,  after  a  year's  labor,  a  small  but  select  law 
library  as  his  compensation. 

Mr.  Allen  Avas  admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  New  York  in  1835.  The  same  year  he  received  from  Union 
College  his  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  of  New  York. 

In  1836,  Mr.  Allen,  by  speeches  and  articles  in  the  public 
journals,  supported  Martin  Van  Buren  for  President.  In  1837 
he  visited  Illinois,  to  look  after  the  real  estate  interests  of  his 
uncle.  General  E.  W.  Ripley.  Previous  to  this  time  he  had 
been  stopping  in  Washington  ;  and  at  one  time  negotiations 
had  been  entertained  by  him  to  become  one  of  the  editors  of 
the  Globe,  which,  however,  resulted  in  no  understanding 
mutually  satisfactory. 

The  Illinois  land  investigating  tour  of  Mr.  Allen  suddenly 
terminated  on  his  arrival  at  Peoria,  where  he  first  learned  of 
the  general  suspension  of  payments  and  the  great  financial  dis- 
tress of  the  country.  He  at  once,  in  alnsvver  to  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  eminent  persons,  set  out  for  the  East.  The 
prospectus  of  the  Madisonian  was  soon  issued,  and  in  a  short 
time  Mr.  Allen  was  at  his  post  in  Washington,  where,  on  the 
16th  of  August,  1837,  the  first  number  of  the  new  organ  was 
issued,  with  Thomas  Allen    as  editor.     The  position  of   the 


138  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

editor  may  be  briefly  summed  in  a  sentence,  "A  mixed  cur- 
rency is  essential  to  a  highly  civilized  commercial  State." 
The  sub-treasury  scheme  of  President  Van  Buren  was  not 
agreeable  to  the  views  of  the  editor  of  the  3Iadisonian,  who 
had  already  announced  his  position  on  the  currency  question, 
and  determined  to  maintain  it  still.  At  an  election  by  Con- 
gress for  public  printer,  the  candidates  vv^ere  Gale  &  Seaton  of 
the  JSfational  Intellif/encer,  and  Blair  &  Rives  of  the  Globe, 
and  Thomas  Allen  of  the  Madisonian  ;  the  last-named,  after  a 
warm  contest  of  three  days'  duration,  was  named  public 
printer. 

The  Madisonian  became  the  chief  opposition  organ  during 
the  Van  Buren  administration.  In  1840,  Mr.  Allen's  choice 
for  President  Avas  Hon.  William  C.  Rives,  of  Virginia,  a 
moderate  Democrat.  But  when  Harrison  and  Tyler  received 
the  nomination  of  the  AVhigs,  Mr.  Allen,  still  being  opposed 
to  the  Van  Buren  party,  gave  them  his  unhesitating  and  ardent 
support.  In  1840,  on  the  11th  of  April,  the  office  of  the 
Madisonian  was  destroyed  by  lire,  but  the  paper  was  imme- 
diately re-established.  During  the  short  presidency  of  Har- 
rison, Mr.  Allen's  position  was  one  of  distinguished  influence, 
and  was  maintained  during  the  first  years  of  Tyler's  adminis- 
tration . 

The  unsatisfactory  phase  assumed  by  national  politics,  dur- 
ing the  early  part  of  President  Tjder's  administration,  induced 
Mr.  Allen  to  consider  the  (juestion  of  a  removal  to  the  West. 
His  relations  with  the  President,  and  with  the  leading  states- 
men at  the  Capital  were  of  the  most  friendly  character,  and 
Mr.  Webster  offered  the  services  of  his  great  intellect  and  able 
pen  to  Mr.  Allen  if  he  would  remain  in  Washington  and  con- 
tinue the  Madisonian.  The  prospect  of  a  long  and  bitter  po- 
litical struggle  was  not  agreeable  to  the  feelings  of  Mr.  Allen, 
and  he  resolved  to  abandon  a  field  where  abundant  success  had 
attended  his  eftbrts. 

In  the  spring  of  1842  the  subject  of  this  sketch  arrived  in 
St.  Louis   with  a  view  of   making  it   his    permanent    home. 
On  the  twelfth  day  of  July  in  that  year,  he  was  united  in 
'marriage  with  Miss  Ann  C.  Russell,  daughter  of  William  Rus- 
sell, Esq.,  of  this  city. 


HON.  THOMAS  ALLEN.  139 

Mr.  Allen  at  first  opened  a  law  office  in  St.  Louis,  but,  in 
1843,  when  his  business  aflairs  at  Washington  were  closed,  he 
found  himself  in  a  position  to  choose  his  pursuits  without  ref- 
erence to  immediate  necessities.  He  soon  closed  the  law  office 
which  he  had  opened  in  St.  Louis,  and  began  to  devote  his 
attention  to  public  interests,  with  abilities  and  zeal  which 
have  produced  great  results  for  himself,  as  well  as  for  the 
city  and  State  of  his  adoption,  and  which  arc  not  confined 
within  State  limits. 

For  a  few  years  he  contented  himself  with  the  publication 
of  a  few  papers  on  general  subjects,  and  pushing  some  local 
projects  for  the  good  of  the  city,  including  the  establishment 
of  the  St.  Louis  Horticultural  Society,  of  which  he  became 
president. 

He  also  made  a  thorough  study  of  the  physical  geography 
and  resources  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  in  1847,  at  the 
request  of  the  St.  Louis  delegates  to  the  convention  held  that 
year  at  Chicago,  prepared  a  pamphlet  upon  the  commerce  and 
navigation  of  the  river,  which  showed  that  his  researches  in 
that  portion  of  the  subject  had  been  thorough  and  laborious. 

In  1848  began  those  labors  in  behalf  of  internal  improve- 
ments in  Missouri  and  neighboring  States,  which  have  contin- 
ued ever  since,  and  have  accomplished  results  which  could 
hardly  have  been  hoped  for  at  that  time. 

St.  Louis,  although  she  had  some  enterprising  citizens,  and 
was  by  the  force  of  her  natural  position  a  thriving,  wealthy 
and  populous  city,  with  great  geographical  advantages  for  fur- 
ther growth,  was  in  1849  by  no  means  the  bold,  ambitious, 
public-spirited  metropolis  which  she  now  is. 

In  1848  Mr.  Allen  wrote  an  address  to  the  citizens  of  St. 
Louis  in  favor  of  the  construction  of  the  St.  Louis  &  Cincin- 
nati Railway. 

At  that  time  there  were  about  seven  thousand  miles  of 
railroad  in  the  whole  United  States — not  a  mile  of  it  Avest  of 
the  Mississippi  River.  But  various  projects  had  been  broached 
for  a  line  to  the  Pacific  coast,  and  early  in  1849,  Senator  Ben- 
ton, of  Missouri,  brought  into  Congress  his  famous  bill  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  project.  The  idea  was  strikingly  con- 
sonant with  Mr.  Allen's  views,  and  at  a  large  meeting  of  the 


140  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

citizens  of  St.  Louis,  called  to  take  action  on  the  subject,  on 
the  20th  of  February,  he  reported  resolutions  strongly  in  favor 
of  a  national  central  highway  to  the  Pacific,  which  were  unani- 
mously passed  and  received  a  hearty  response  from  the  State 
Legislature. 

In  the  October  following,  under  a  call  of  the  citizens  of  St. 
Louis,  written  by  Mr,  Allen,  a  national  convention  assembled 
in  this  city,  delegates  from  fourteen  States  being  present. 
Senator  Benton,  Mr.  Allen  and  others,  made  speeches  in  favor 
of  the  enterprise,  and  to  Mr.  Allen  was  entrusted  the  prepara- 
tion of  an  address-to  the  people  of  the  United  States  and  a 
memorial  to  Congress. 

The  question  of  building  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  coast  had 
already  excited  a  vast  amount  of  attention,  and  railroad  char- 
ters were  from  time  to  time  granted,  but  the  corporators  were 
indifferent,  and  did  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  organize  the 
companies  authorized  b}^  acts  of  the  legislature.  Such  a  char- 
ter had  passed  in  the  legislature  of  Missouri. 

There  was  no  purpose  of  any  immediate  use  of  the  charter 
by  the  corporators  ;  but  it  dwelt  upon  the  mind  of  Mr.  Allen, 
who,  from  this  time,  devoted  himself  energetically  to  the  sub- 
ject, contending  almost  single-handed  against  prejudice,  timid- 
ity and  apathy.  In  January,  1850,  he  called  public  attention 
to  the  charter,  in  a  card,  and  invited  a  meeting  of  the  corpora- 
tors. The  meeting  was  held,  and,  as  a  result  of  the  investiga- 
tion and  thought  which  he  had  concentrated  upon  the  subject, 
he  read  an  address  whose  comprehensiveness  of  view,  accuracy 
and  fullness  of  detail,  and  earnestness  of  manner  were  irresist- 
ibly convincing.  One  hundred  and  fifty-four  thousand  dollars 
of  the  stock  were  taken  on  the  spot,  the  address  was  circulated 
freely,  and  Mr.  Allen  was  soon  after  elected  president  of  the 
company.  Ground  was  broken  on  the  road  July  4,  1851,  and 
the  contractors  were  fairly  at  work  in  September. 

In  1850  Mr.  Allen  was  chosen  for  four  years  to  the  Senate 
of  Missouri,  whei-e  he  was  immediately  made  chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  Internal  Improvements. 

In  the  position  to  which  he  had  been  called  as  a  legislator, 
he  labored  with  fidelity  and  consummate  abilit}^  to  advance  the 
industrial  interests  of  the  State.     The  results  of  such  well- 


HON.  THOMAS  ALLEN.  141 

directed  efforts  could  not  prove  ephemeral  in  character.  Much 
of  the  subsequent  growth  in  wealth  and  power  of  the  State  is 
due  to  the  intelligent  and  far-sighted  measures  proi)osed  and 
advocated  by  Hon.  Thomas  Allen. 

MeauAvhile,  he  had  not  relinquished  any  part  of  his  interest 
in  the  great  work  of  completing  the  Pacific  railway.  Travel- 
ing on  horseback  along  the  proposed  route  of  the  road,  he 
roused  the  slumbering  energies  of  the  })eople  in  behalf  of  a 
work  "which,  so  nearly  concerned  them,  and  procured  numer- 
ous petitions  to  Congress  for  a  grant  of  land  in  its  aid.  Armed 
with  these,  and  rendered  more  familiar  with  the  resources  of 
the  region  to  be  opened  by  the  road,  he  proceeded  to  AYash- 
ington  and  presented  his  case  so  strongly  that  in  June,  1852, 
an  act  was  passed  granting  alternate  sections  of  land — the  first 
encouragement  given  by  Congress  to  a  Pacific  railroad. 

In  1854  Mr.  Allen  retired  from  the  Senate,  declining  the 
renomination  which  was  tendered  him.  The  next  few  years 
of  his  life  were  largely,  although  not  entirely,  given  to  his 
private  affairs,  which  had  suffered  somewhat  by  his  exclusive 
devotion  to  the  interest  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  his  property, 
consisting  in  great  part  of  city  lots,  then  unimproved. 

In  1857  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  Terre  Haute,  Alton 
&  St.  Louis  Railroad,  but  finding  it  deeply  involved  in  debt, 
withdrew  at  the  end  of  the  year,  recommending  a  re-organiza- 
tion . 

Mr.  Allen  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Union  during  the  late 
war,  and  was  active  in  support  of  measures  to  carry  out  his 
principles.  He  was  nominated  a  candidate  for  Congress  by 
the  "Unconditional  Union  Men"  in  1862.  His  loyalty  to  the 
Government,  which  had  been  so  openly  manifested,  was  as- 
persed at  the  time,  and  he  was  defeated  by  means  to  which  ex- 
treme partisans  resorted  in  those  troublous  times. 

In  1865,  Mr.  Allen,  with  his  eldest  son  and  daughter,  visited 
Great  Britain  and  the  continent  of  Europe. 

In  1866  he  presented  a  plan  for  the  liquidation  of  the 
national  debt,  by  a  grand  patriotic  subscrii)tion,  in  commu- 
tation of  taxes,  and  also  based,  in  part,  on  repayment  in  public 
lands. 

On  the  completion  of  his  house  at  Pittsfield,  Mr.  Allen 


142  TOUR    OF       ST.    LOUIS. 

had  proposed  to  himself  to  pause  in  his  arduous  business 
career  and  devote  himself  to  the  rural  pursuits  he  loves  so 
well ;  but  his  is  not  a  nature  to  so  pause  when  scarcely  past 
the  meridian  of  life. 

He  himself  expressed,  on  one  occasion,  the  irresistible 
impulse  to  action  which  doomed  him  to  a  life  of  labor  in  the 
following  words : 

"  I  have  sometimes  felt  compelled  to  admit  the  truth  of  a 
remark  made  by  one  of  my  attorneys,  that  I  am  condemned 
by  the  Almighty  to  hard  labor  for  the  term  of  my  natural  life. 
What  caused  the  sentence  I  do  not  know,  but  I  admit  its 
justice  and  submit  to  it,  and  thiit  certainly  not  merely  to 
amass  the  goods  of  this  world,  for  I  have  long  since  had  a 
sufficiency  of  them." 

It  was  a  little  more  than  two  years  before  the  date  of  this 
speech  and  that  while  Mr.  Allen  was  haunted  by  his  life- 
sentence,  an  irresistible  opportunity  invited  him  back  to  the 
railroad  field  of  Missouri.  The  Iron  Mountain  road,  which  had 
received  large  subsidies  from  the  State  and  from  the  city  of 
St.  Louis,  was  surrendered  to  the  State  unfinished,  in  part  on 
account  of  the  civil  troubles  which  had  recently  ended.  It 
was  intended  by  this  route  to  open  the  richest  mineral  lands 
of  Missouri — some  of  the  richest  in  the  world — to  a  market ; 
while  extending  by  its  charter  to  Belmont,  opposite  the  city 
of  Columbus,  in  Kentucky,  it  was  the  great  trunk  line  which 
should  bring  the  traffic  of  the  South  and  Southwest  to  St. 
Louis.  Closely  connected  with  it  was  the  Cairo  &  Fulton 
Railroad,  extending  to  the  Arkansas  boundary.  In  the  imme- 
diate rivalry  of  cities,  as  well  as  for  the  permanent  interests 
of  Missouri,  it  was  essential  that  these  roads — especially  the 
Iron  Mountain — should  be  speedily  completed.  To  this  end 
the  Legislature  ordered  their  sale,  by  commissioners,  to  the 
highest  and  6e6-<  bidders :  the  latter  qualiBcation  was  added, 
as  energy,  experience  and  resources,  in  large  measure,  were 
indisj)ensable  to  the  rapid  execution  of  the  work. 

The  two  roads  were  sold  together.  We  will  not  go  into 
the  particulars  of  the  sale,  which  was  complicated  by  politi- 
cians and  speculators  ;  but  Mr.  Allen,  who  had  been  over-bid, 
was  able  to  purchase  the  roads  and  their  franchise  from  the 


HON.  THOMAS  ALLEN.  143 

successful  bidders  for  one  million  dollars,  with  an  obligation 
to  the  State  to  complete  the  Iron  Mountain  road  in  five  years. 

A  committee  of  the  Legislature,  who  afterwards  examined 
the  matter,  thought  the  difference  of  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  between  the  price  which  Mr.  Allen  gave 
the  speculators  and  that  which  he  ofiered  the  commissioners, 
was  well  paid  "to  individuals  who  would  stand  as  first  pur- 
chasers between  him  and  the  abuse  of  politicians."  It  did 
not,  however,  altogether  avail  him,  for  the  Governor,  the  next 
year,  seized  the  road  on  pretext  of  some  variation  in  the  time 
of  progress,  although  it  was  conceded  that  on  the  whole  the 
advance  was  greater  than  that  agreed  upon. 

Upon  this  Mr.  Allen  appealed  to  the  Legislature,  where, 
in  a  thorough  investigation  and  discussion  of  the  facts,  he  so 
completely  sustained  himself,  that  that  body,  more  than  rati- 
fying his  previous  title,  vested  the  property  and  franchise  of 
the  road  absolutely  in  himself,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  subject 
only  to  his  obligation  to  complete  it  in  the  specified  time, 
tendering  also  the  State  aid  for  a  branch  to  Arkansas,  which 
he  has  since  Iniiit.  The  road  was,  in  fact,  complete  in  August, 
1869 — the  purchase  having  been  made  in  January,  1867 — in 
less  than  half  the  time  allowed  by  the  contract.  According 
to  "Poor's  Railroad  Manual,"  having  a  length  of  two  hun- 
dred and  ten  miles,  it  cost,  including  real  estate  and  rolling 
stock,  $10,380,000,  and  has  a  funded  debt  of  $4,000,000.  Mr. 
Allen  is  still  President  and  chief  owner. 

In  1871,  he,  wnth  his  associates,  purchased  the  Cairo  & 
Fulton  Railroad  of  Arkansas,  an  extension  of  the  road  of  the 
same  name  in  Missouri,  bought  in  1867. 

The  system  of  roads  under  Mr.  Allen's  control  embraces 
about  seven  hundred  miles  of  track,  and  is  altogether  the  most 
imi^ortant  line  centering  at  St.  Louis.  Since  the  completion 
of  his  great  railway  system,  Mr.  Allen  has  devoted  himself 
with  great  assiduity  to  the  management  of  his  vast  railroad 
and  real  estate  interests.  Though  long  ago  the  possessor  of 
an  immense  fortune,  yet  Mr.  Allen  labors  as  assiduously  as 
any  man  in  the  State — in  fact  he  is  a  hard-worker. 

In  1877,  some  of  the  bondholders  became  dissatisfied  with 
Mr.  Allen's  management,  because  he  would  not  sacrifice  the 


144  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

interests  of  St.  Louis  and  the  State  which  he  had  adopted, 
and  made  an  effort  to  place  the  road  in  the  hands  of  a  re- 
ceiver. The  attempt  proved  a  failure,  much  to  the  gratifica- 
tion of  all  true  friends  of  the  city  and  State. 

We  have  thus  briefly  noted  some  of  the  principal  incidents 
in  the  career  of  a  gentleman  who  has  perhaps  accomplished 
more  in  the  work  of  building  up  the  State  and  promoting  its 
industrial  development  than  any  man  who  has  ever  lived  with- 
in her  borders.  But  we  have  not  given  a  sufficient  account  of 
the  gentleman  whose  name  heads  this  article.  Mr.  Allen  has 
been  foremost  in  the  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  education,  and 
has  proved  his  interest  in  that  cau&a  by  endowing  a  chair  in 
the  faculty  of  Washington  University,  at  an  expense  of  more 
than  forty  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Allen  is  everywhere  recog- 
nized as  a  clear-headed  and  brilliant  thinker.  He  has  found  time 
amid  the  multifarious  labors  which  he  has  had  to  perform  to 
carefully  watch  the  political  progress  of  the  country,  and  his 
views  on  all  questions  of  national  politics  have  been  eagerly 
sought  by  politicians  and  statesmen.  Mr.  Allen  is  evidently 
a  believer  in  the  wisdom  inherent  in  the  aggregate  mass  of  the 
people,  hence  his  general  sympathy  with  the  aspirations  of  the 
masses.  His  views  on  financial  and  other  questions  are  some- 
what new,  but  clear  and  practical,  and  in  full  accord  with  the 
general  tone  of  Western  sentiment.  It  must  not  be  inferred 
that  Mr.  Allen  is  wanting  in  independence  of  thought  on  every 
question.  His  whole  career  presents  him  as  a  man  who  bor- 
rows thoughts  from  no  one,  aild  who  is  eminently  capable  of 
originating  ideas. 

A  large  number  of  Mr.  Allen's  personal  and  political 
friends  solicited  him  to  address  a  public  meeting  at  St.  Charles, 
on  the  evening  of  the  22d  of  May,  1878.  Mr.  Allen  responded 
in  an  address,  which  for  clearness,  force,  and  gracefulness  of 
diction  has  been  seldom  equaled  in  this  State  by  any  of  its  able 
men.  His  views  are  singularly  harmonious  with  the  general 
tone  of  Western  sentiment.  The  folio wino;  extract  is  a  succinct 
statement  of  his  opinion  of  the  character  of  our  Government : 

<' Can  we  not  have,"  he  demanded,  "a  higher  deo-ree  of 
prosperity  and  better  government  at  a  less  cost?  This  is  one 
of  the    constantly   recurring   problems.     Parties    have   been 


HON.  THOMAS  ALLEN.  145 

divided  for  seventy-seven  years.  All  profess  to  have  a  com- 
mon object,  but  differ  as  to  the  mode  of  attaining  it.  These 
differences,  however,  as  they  relate  to  constitutional  construc- 
tion, are  radical.  As  they  relate  to  ethics  or  political  econ- 
omy, they  are  sovereign  matters  of  incessant  controversy. 
We  are  not  the  founders  of  our  government,  but  we  imagine 
that  our  fathers  founded  an  ideal  republic  which  we  possess 
and  enjoy.  It  is  our  business  and  duty  to  maintain  and  defend 
it  in  its  purity,  and  to  administer  its  government  without  ex- 
travagance, fraud  or  injustice.  We  ought  to  see  to  it  that  it 
is  kept  within  its  proper  sphere,  and  that  nothing  is  to  be 
allowed  for  one  citizen  or  for  one  State  that  is  not  conceded  to 
all  other  citizens  and  all  other  States.  That  we  vigilantly 
preserve  the  foundations  of  equal  rights  and  equal  protection 
in  all  things  which  concerns  the  States  in  the  Union,  and  in  all 
that  concerns  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men,  their  lives,  liberties 
property,  homes,  families,  education  and  religion.  The  de- 
fense and  maintenance  of  our  republican  system  includes  hon- 
esty and  economical  administration,  a.nd  necessarily  implies  the 
equal  distribution  of  the  burdens  as  well  as  of  the  blessings  of 
government,  and  constant  improvement,  which  includes  the 
suppression  and  prevention  of  corruptions  and  abuses.  These 
are  the  duties  to  which  all  citizens  are  called,  and  these  Ave  de- 
fine to  be  cardinal  doctrines  of  democrats." 

On  the  pressing  questions  of  the  day,  the  labor  and  finan- 
cial problems,  for  instance,  Mr.  Allen  is  very  clear  and  quite 
in  harmony  with  the  people  of  the  great  West,  leaning  strong- 
ly toward  the  French  fiscal  system,  which,  he  believes,  if  ap- 
plied to  this  country,  would  bring  prosperity  and  solve  all  de- 
pendent questions. 


10 


MAP  OP  THE 

St.  Louis,  Iroa  Moimtm 

AXD 

SOUTHERN  RAILWAY 

AND 

CONNECTIONS. 


ST.  LOUISl 

Or 


Bismarck  ^^  \V.» 


LLINO  IS 


^ 


Cairo 


^Poplar  Bluff.<^gr..lr''^"  ^\ 


RAILWAYS. 


ST.  LOUIS,  IRON  MOUNTAIN  &  SOUTHERN. 

Few  cities  can  boast  of  as  many  railroad  advantages  as  St. 
Louis.  Many  of  the  railroads  making  this  city  their  terminal 
point  have  been  built  within  comparatively  a  very  recent 
period.  Such  is  the  fact,  however,  with  regard  to  a  large 
number  of  the  important  railways  in  all  parts  of  the  United 
States.  It  has  been  computed  that  in  1870  there  were  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty-hve  thousand  miles  of  railroads  con- 
structed in  the  world,  and  that  they  had  cost,  on  an  average, 
about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  mile  for  their  construc- 
tion and  equipment,  having  thus  led  to  the  creation  of  an 
invested  capital  of  some  twelve  thousand  millions  of  dollars — 
an  amount  of  wealth  which  can  be  represented  in  figures,  but 
which  is  too  vast  to  be  grasped  by  the  mind  so  as  to  be  clearly 
comprehended. 

In  the  United  States,  where  the  railroad  has  become  more 
a  necessary  condition  of  existence  than  in  any  other  country 
in  the  world — not  even  excepting  England — there  were,  in 
1871,  according  to  reliable  statistics,  nearly  fifty  thousand 
miles  of  railroads  constructed,  and  the  yearly  increase  had 
risen  from  an  average  of  five  hundred  miles  annually  some 
thirty  years  ago,  or  two  thousand  miles  ten  years  ago,  to 
twenty  thousand  miles  in  1871.  This  amount  of  miles,  it  is 
estimated,  caused  the  expenditure  of  eight  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  The  number  of  miles  of  railroad  projected  and 
completed  the  following  year  fell  but  little  short  of  that 
recorded  for  1871.  The  social,  the  financial,  the  commercial, 
and  the  industrial  effects,  which  are  the  inevitable  results  of 
this  new  agent,  furnish  inexhaustible  subjects  for  reflection 
and  comment. 

[147] 


148  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  labor  employed,  no  less  than  the  immense  capital 
invested,  makes  the  railroading  interest  a  large  factor  in  the 
evolution  of  society,  the  relation  of  one  to  the  other  being  so 
intimate  that  every  influence  which  aflfects  the  one  carries  a 
corresponding  influence  upon  the  other.  Thus  we  observe 
that  labor  strikes  and  adverse  railroad  legislation  not  only 
injure  the  railway  companies,  but  the  serious  injury  is  reflected 
and  magnified  upon  the  people,  but  it  is  upon  the  producer 
particularly  that  the  most  serious  consequences  fall.  The 
result,  therefore,  in  every  instance,  is  the  very  opposite  of  that 
sought,  and  until  this  fact  is  recognized  there  can  be  no  equilib- 
rium of  the  forces  which  build  up  and  replenish  our  resources 
and  succor  and  sustain  labor.  The  true  interest  of  fanners, 
mechanics,  laborers  of  every  class,  and  the  entire  people, 
is  therefore  found  in  the  success  of  our  railroads,  while  the 
roads  are  also  dependent  on  the  prosperity  of  the  people. 
The  inter-dependency,  in  fact,  of  these  great  interests  should 
be  manifest,  and  when  universally  recognized,  all  differences 
will  be  forever  adjusted. 

In  making  special  mention  of  some  of  the  most  important 
railways  terminating  at  St.  Louis,  and  noting  something  of 
their  history,  value,  extent  and  commercial  influence,  it  will 
be  deemed  proper  to  begin  with  the  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain 
&  Southern  Railway,  especially  inasmuch  as  the  vast  extent 
of  country  opened  up  by  this  great  railway  enterprise  had 
hitherto  been  almost  wholly  unknown  to  the  commerce  of 
this  city. 

In  the  year  1858,  the  Iron  Mountain  Railway  was  comple- 
ted and  put  into  operation  between  St.  Louis  and  Pilot  Knob, 
in  Iron  County,  a  distance  of  eighty-five  miles  ;  and  for  several 
years  this  road  was  extended  no  further  than  the  famous  iron 
mines  in  that  county,  which  gave  the  road  its  first  name — 
"Iron  Mountain."  From  1860  to  1865,  nothing  could  be 
done  in  the  way  of  pushing  the  construction  of  the  road  for- 
ward, as  during  that  period  of  our  history  the  prosecution  of 
all  such  enterprises  was  of  course  necessarily  postponed. 
Very  soon  thereafter,  however,  Hon.  Thomas  Allen,  the 
President  of  the  road,  began  to  adopt  measures  lookins:  to  the 
completion    of  this   great    railway  thoroughfare,   and   almost 


I 


RAILWAYS.  ■  149 

unaided,  succeeded  in  negotiating  for  sufficient  funds  to  accom- 
plish the  end  in  view. 

St.  Louis  had  secured  a  lucrative  trade  with  several  of  the 
Trans-Mississippi  Southern  States,  such  as  Kentucky,  Tennes- 
see, Mississippi,  Alabama  and  Georgia,  and  as  a  very  large 
number  of  the  orders  from  those  States  for  goods,  provisions, 
etc.,  was  received  here  during  the  winter  months  when  the 
river  was  closed  to  navigation,  Mr.  Allen  was  urged  by  the 
merchants  especially,  to  first  complete  a  railway  track  from 
Bismarck,  on  the  Iron  Mountain  road,  about  seventy-five  miles 
from  St.  Louis,  to  Belmont,  Missouri,  on  the  Mississippi 
River,  opposite  Columbus,  Kentucky,  and  below  the  line  of 
ice  gorges.  By  such  means  St.  Louis  would  secure  direct 
connection  with  the  Mobile  &  Ohio  Railroad,  and  be  enabled 
also,  when  necessary,  to  utilize  the  Memphis  and  Vicksburg 
steamers  from  Belmont  or  Columbus,  down  the  river  during 
the  season  of  suspended  navigation  on  the  Upper  Mississippi. 

Desirous  of  subserving  the  commercial  interests  of  St. 
Louis  to  the  extent  of  every  means  at  his  command.  President 
Allen  directed  the  branch  road  to  be  pushed  forward  to  an 
<;arly  comjDletion.  This  section  of  road  was  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  in  length,  and  was  a  costly  line  of  railroad  to 
build,  traversing,  as  it  does,  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
distance,  a  country  of  very  uneven  surface.  But  it  was  b}^ 
dint  of  commendable  energy  completed  in  due  time,  and  the 
rush  of  freight  over  it  often  exceeded  the  carrying  capacity  of 
the  road,  especially  during  the  winter  season.  This  line  of 
railway  has  become  the  popular  route  between  St.  Louis  and 
all  points  in  the  Trans-Mississippi  Southern  States. 

In  1872,  the  Arkansas  branch  of  the  road  was  completed, 
ninety  nine  miles  in  length,  from  Pilot  Knob  to  the  State  line 
of  Arkansas,  and  about  the  same  time  the  Cairo,  Arkansas 
&  Texas  Railroad,  seventy-one  miles*  in  length,  was  comple- 
ted and  put  into  running  operation.  This  road  extends  from 
a  point  on  the  Mississippi  River,  opposite  Cairo,  to  Poplar 
Bluff,  Butler  County,  Missouri,  where  it  connects  with  the 
Iron  Mountain.  The  Cairo  &  Fulton  Railroad,  from  Little 
Rock  to  the  Missouri  State  line,  was  the  next  important  link 
in  the  great  thoroughfare   which   was    finally  completed    by 


150  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

extendins:  the  road  from  Little  Rock  to  Texarkana,  on  the 
Texas  State  line,  thus  furnishing  St.  Louis  with  a  complete 
first-class  railway  line  to  Galveston  and  all  other  prominent 
cities  and  terminal  points  in  the  State  of  Texas.  It  will  thus 
be  seen  that  several  valuable  railways  have  been  united  to 
form  this  great  corporation  :  The  Iron  Mountain  Railroad,  the 
Arkansas  branch  of  the  Iron  Mountain,  the  Belmont  or  Colum- 
bus branch  of  the  same,  the  Cairo,  Arkansas  &  Texas,  and 
the  Cairo  &  Fulton.  These  were  all  consolidated  under  the 
present  title  of  the  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern 
Railway. 

By  an  act  of  Congress  in  185o,  and  a  subsequent  act  of 
the  same  body  of  July  28,  1860,  a  grant  of  land  was  confirmed 
to  the  company,  consisting  of  six  thousand  four  hundred  acres 
to  each  mile  of  road  constructed  and  operated  in  Arkansas, 
extending  to  twenty  miles  on  each  side  of  the  track,  thus 
comi3rising  ten  full  sections  of  six  hundred  and  forty  acres 
each  to  the  mile.  A  donation  of  county  lands  in  Butler  County^ 
Missouri,  has  also  been  obtained,  as  well  also  as  a  land  grant 
from  the  General  Government  to  the  Cairo,  Arkansas  &  Texas 
Railroad,  lying  in  several  of  the  best  of  the  southeastern 
counties  of  Missouri,  making  a  total  of  nearly  one  million 
four  hundred  thousand  acres  of  most  desirable  land  now  at 
the  disposal  of  this  company.  Of  these  lands  one  million 
three  hundred  thousand  acres  are  located  in  Arkansas,  and 
nearly  one  hundred  thousand  acres  in  Missouri. 

For  general  farming  purposes  these  lands  can  not  easily  be 
excelled  anywhere.  The  fertility  of  the  soil  is  well  nigh  inex- 
haustible. In  both  climate  and  soil  the  lands  are  well  adapted 
to  the  production  of  corn,  wheat,  oats,  tobacco,  cotton  and 
hemp — the  great  leading  staple  products  of  the  American 
continent.  Besides  this,  stock-raising  can  be  successfully 
carried  on  in  any  portion  of  country  where  they  are  located. 
The  climate  is  mild  in  winter  and  the  temperature  of  the 
summer  is  no  greater  than  in  Southern  Illinois.  The  growing 
and  maturing  season  is  lengthy,  being  usually  from  February 
until  November,  thus  admitting  of  the  growth  and  maturity 
of  all  manner  of  crops  adapted  to  the  temperate  zone.  The 
country  abounds  in  clear,  living  springs  and  unfailing  streams 


RAILWAYS.  151 

of  water  and  drought  at  any  season  of  the  year  is  unheard  of. 
Water  power  is  abundant,  and  saw  and  grist  mills  arc  already 
quite  numerous  and  accessible  at  convenient  distances  along 
the  line  of  the  road.  Many  of  these  lands  containing  the 
finest  of  oak  and  walnut,  the  manufacture  of  lumber  is  be- 
ginning to  engage  attention  and  is  considered  an  excellent 
business. 

There  are  immense  forests  of  graceful  oaks,  hickories, 
cypress,  catalpa,  pines,  and  many  other  variety  of  timber, 
the  graceful  foliage  of  which  makes  the  scenery  most  pictur- 
esque and  lovely,  and  in  which  the  sound  of  the  axe  or  saw  has 
never  been  heard.  The  road  plunges  through  the  midst  of  the 
primeval  solitudes,  and  growing  within  a  few  yards  of  the  great 
iron  highway  are  thousands  of  giant  trees,  the  embryo  of  many 
cities,  ocean  steamers,  and  furnit  ure  for  a  nation.  The  pineries 
of  Missouri  and  Arkansas  are  valuable  almost  beyond  computa- 
tion ;  and,  when  considering  their  proximity  to  St.  Louis,  and 
the  facilities  for  bringing  the  timber  into  market,  it  is  a  matter 
of  the  greatest  surprise  that  no  more  effort  has  been  made  to 
utilize  this  growing  wealth.  These  lands  offer  an  opportunity 
for  remunerative  speculation  incomparably  greater  than  an  in- 
vestment in  any  other  kind  of  real  estate,  while  to  the  hus- 
bandman who  settles  upon  them  there  is  a  sure  reward  for  his 
industry  more  satisfactory  than  a  settlement  upon  prairie 
lands  of  the  West,  which  are  generally  destitute  of  timber, 
the  first  requisite  essential  to  the  success  of  the  agri- 
culturist. A  small  outlay  here  gives  large  and  almost  im- 
mediate returns,  and  the  source  of  supply  is  well-nigh  inex- 
haustible. The  labor,  too,  is  neither  hard  nor  difficult,  but  in 
many  respects  is  an  absolute  pleasure,  especially  to  the  lum- 
berman. 

The  best  of  lumber  can  be  obtained  at  small  expense,  as 
saw-mills  take  pay  for  their  work  in  lumber,  and  the  valuable 
timber  on  much  of  the  land  Avould  bring  in  lumber  ten  times 
the  price  asked  for  the  land.  A  supply  of  fine  timber  is  a 
mine  of  wealth  to  the  farmer  in  time  and  money  saved,  as  the 
owners  of  prairie  farms,  who  have  to  haul  their  fuel  and  fencing 
five  to  ten  miles,  will  readily  admit.  Fine  bodies  of  rich, 
productive  lands,  such  as  these,  and  situated  on  a  great  laihvay 


152  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

thoroughfare,  within  easy  reach  of  a  first-class  market,  are 
not  often  found  for  sale  on  terms  which  enable  the  poorest  of 
people  to  buy  and  own  them. 

The  railway  company  offer  these  lands  to  persons  who  may 
wish  to  purchase,  on  ten  years'  credit.  At  the  time  of  the 
purchase  only  six  per  cent,  interest  on  the  cost  of  the  land 
need  be  paid.  The  same  sum  is  required  the  second  year. 
The  third  year  one-ninth  of  the  principal  and  six  per  cent, 
interest  on  the  remaining  part  of  the  principal,  and  each  year 
thereafter  another  ninth  of  the  principal  and  six  per  cent, 
interest  on  the  remainder  is  required,  and  so  on  until  all  the 
purchase  money  is  paid.  The  prices  of  these  lands  range  from 
two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  to  ten  dollars  per  acre,  according 
to  their  proximity  to  any  shipping  station  on  the  line  of  the 
railway.  Occasionally,  of  course,  there  are  some  very  choice 
parcels  of  land  belonging  to  the  company  that  are  held  some- 
what higher  than  the  prices  mentioned.  But  all  are  exceed- 
ingly cheap  and  easily  obtainable  by  any  man  of  ordinary 
industry.  If  parties  desire  to  pay  all  cash  at  the  time  of 
purchase,  or  part  cash  with  shorter  time  between  the  deferred 
payments,  a  fair  and  equitable  deduction  is  made.  With  such 
favorable  opportunities  to  acquire  homes  and  become  proprie- 
tors of  the  soil,  many  people  of  even  comparatively  indigent 
circumstances  have  little  excuse  for  crowding  the  many  dilapi- 
dated and  unwholesome  tenements  of  the  laro:er  cities. 

Those  desiring  full  particulars  concerning  these  lands,  or 
any  portion  of  them,  will  receive  satisfactory  information  on 
the  subject  by  addressing  Hon.  Thomas  Essex,  Land  Commis- 
sioner at  Little  Kock,  Arkansas,  at  the  company's  depot.  He 
is  well  informed  regarding  everj^thing  pertaining  to  his  depart- 
ment, and  his  statements  can  be  implicitly  relied  upon.  Com- 
munications touching  the  same  matter  of  inquiry  and  in  rela- 
tion to  the  lands  in  Missouri  also  may  be  addressed  to  W.  A. 
Kendall,  Esq.,  Assistant  Land  Commissioner  at  St.  Louis, 
who  will  give  them  immediate  attention.  Any  who  may  wish 
a  personal  interview  with  Mr.  Kendall  will  find  him  in  the 
land  department  at  the  general  offices  of  the  company,  sit- 
uated on  the  northwest  corner  of  Fifth  and  Market  streets, 
St.  Louis. 


RAILWAYS.  153 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  South- 
ern Railway  is  one  of  the  most  important  thoroughfares  in 
the  West.  It  has  six  hundred  and  eighty-five  miles  of  road 
in  actual  operation,  and  with  its  connections  affords  to  St. 
Louis  a  trade  area  of  almost  unlimited  value.  It  opens  the 
door  to  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Alabama  and  Geor- 
gia, in  the  Southeast,  and  to  Arkansas,  Texas  and  Mexico,  in 
the  Southwest.  By  its  course  through  Arkansas  and  its 
numerous  and  extensive  Texas  connections,  it  has  brousfht  to 
St.  Louis  a  trade  in  cotton  which  has  already  been  worth  to 
the  city  millions  of  dollars.  Cotton  is  specially  mentioned 
because  it  is  comparatively  a  new  trade  at  this  point,  and  for 
the  further  reason  that  it  promises  great  expansion  in  the 
future.  By  far  the  largest  part  of  the  one  million  five  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  of  land  owned  b}^  the  railway  company 
is  timbered,  very  fertile  and  tillable,  and  it  is  not  assuming 
too  much  to  say  that  in  every  ten  years  at  least  one  hundred 
thousand  acres  of  this  new  land  will  be  brought  under  cotton 
culture,  thus  furnishing  an  increase  of  about  seventy-five 
thousand  bales  of  cotton  in  St.  Louis  receipts,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  natural  increase  of  that  commodity  on  lands  not  belong- 
ing to  the  company,  in  both  Arkansas  and  Texas, 

Within  the  past  three  years  another  important  branch  of 
road  has  been  built,  giving  direct  rail  connection  with  Hot 
Springs,  by  forming  a  junction  with  the  Iron  Mountain  Rail- 
road at  Malvern,  twenty-five  miles  distant.  This  already 
famous  resort  for  invalids  is  daily  becoming  more  noted  and 
popular,  and  it  is  not  chimerical  to  prophesy  that  one  day 
Hot  Springs  will  be  the  greatest  resort  of  the  kind  in  the 
world.  One  serious  drawback  to  its  greater  notoriety  is  the 
disputed  title  to  the  Springs,  lately  adjudicated  in  favor  of  the 
Gdvernment ;  but  with  a  complete  settlement  of  this  annoying 
question,  capital  will'be  invested  sufficient  to  make  the  Springs 
the  finest  on  the  continent ;  magnificent  hotels  and  public 
buildings  will  be  put  up,  and  the  uncouth  valley  in  its  natural 
ruggedness  will  be  transformed  into  rich  scenery  and  busy  life. 

Little  Rock  is  another  important  point  on  the  Iron  Moun- 
tain, which  is  growing  rapidly,  and  already  stands  the 
acknowledged    metropolis    of   the    great    State    of  Arkansas, 


154  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

pregnant  with  promises  of  the  greatest  city  in  the  Southwest, 
a  distributing  point  for  the  cotton  and  cereal  product  of  that 
section,  and  an  immense  manufacturing  city.  Her  tributary 
connection  with  St.  Louis  is  such  that  the  prosperity  of  Little 
Kock  is  the  prosperity  of  our  own  city,  and  she  is  therefore 
entitled  to  our  assistance.  The  trade  with  the  Southwest, 
opened  up  by  the  Iron  Mountain  road,  is  in  its  incipiency,  but 
its  growth  and  development  is  surprisingly  rapid. 

We  have  mentioned  Poplar  Bluff,  Missouri,  and  Texarkana, 
as  railway  junctions.  I^oplar  Bluff,  situated  on  Black  River, 
which  from  its  clearness  well  merits  the  name  "Le  Claire,"  is 
a  very  promising  town,  surrounded  by  the  most  favorable 
country  both  in  the  high  and  in  the  low  lands.  No  district 
can  present  better  timber  and  richer  lands  than  the  bottoms  ; 
nor  can  the  advantages  of  the  high  lands  be  surpassed.  It  is 
a  center  for  much  of  the  business  from  Arkansas  west  of  White 
River,  and  draws  much  of  the  trade  from  Ripley  and  more 
western  counties  of  Missouri. 

Texarkana  is  at  the  junction  of  various  railroads,  and  is 
also  destined  to  be  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  South- 
western country. 

The  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern  Railway  has 
always  been  and  is  managed  with  consummate  ability  and 
signal  success.  President  Allen  has  been  constant  and  unre- 
mitting  in  his  efforts  to  perfect  it  in  all  its  various  departments, 
and  in  this  he  has  been  well  and  ably  assisted  by  all  the  other 
officers  of  the  corporation,  among  whom  it  will  not  be  invidious 
to,  mention  the  well-known  and  experienced  General  Manager, 
W.  R.  Arthur,  Esq.,  and  the  worthy  and  popular  Superintend- 
ent, Col.  A.  W.  Soper,  gentlemen  of  the  very  highest  order 
of  merit  and  managerial  ability  ;  Mr.  Marquand,  Vice  Presi- 
dent ;  Mr.  D.  W.  McWilliams,  Treasurer  ;  Hon.  S.  D.  Barlow, 
Secretary  and  Assistant  Treasurer  ;  J.  W.  Wallace,  Auditor  ; 
Messrs.  Thoroughman  &  Warren,  Mr.  W.  R.  Donaldson,  and 
J.  M.  Moore,  Attorneys  ;  Col.  E.  A.  Ford,  General  Passenger 
Agent ;  Seth  Frink,  General  Freight  Agent,  and  the  Land 
Commissioner  and  Assistant,  referred  to  elsewhere  ;  Mr.  Bil- 
lings, Paymaster,  and  the  other  officers  not  mentioned  here  by 


RAILWAYS.  155 

name,  comprise  a  corps  of  railroad  officials  difficult  to  excel 
anywhere  in  energy,  experience  and  fidelity  to  trust. 

The  Board  of  Directors  is  composed  of  the  following  named 
gentlemen  : 

William  II.  Swift,  New  York  ;  John  Bigelow,  New  York  ; 
Joseph  Lowrey,  New  York ;  George  C.  Ward,  New  York ; 
George  S.  Morison,  New  York  ;  Henry  G.  Marquand,  New 
York  ;  Thomas  Essex,  Little  Rock  ;  Girard  B.  Allen,  St.  Louis  ; 
Sylvester  H.  Laflin,  St.  Louis ;  William  R.  Allen,  St.  Louis  ; 
S.  D.  Barlow,  St.  Louis  ;  Thomas  Allen,  St.  Louis. 


THE  ST.  LOUIS  &  SOUTHEASTERN  RAILWAY. 

(  CONSOLIDATED.  ) 

Any  notice  of  the  great  lines  of  railroad  radiating  from  St. 
Louis  which  did  not  include  special  mention  of  the  St.  Louis 
&  Southeastern,  would  be  far  from  complete.  This  enter- 
prising road  has  done  much  to  extend  the  commerce  of  this 
city  and  open  up  a  grand  railway  route — almost  trans-con- 
tinental in  extent — through  the  States  of  the  Southeast  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  South  Atlantic  seaboard.  Connect- 
ing, as  it  does,  St.  Louis  with  Nashville,  Tenn.,  it  extends 
through  four  great  States,  traversing  in  its  course  a  wealthy, 
fertile  and  beautiful  country,  noted  not  less  for  its  varied  and 
enchanting  scenery  than  for  the  value  of  its  agricultural  and 
mineral  products.  This  road,  though  built  within  the  past  few 
years,  already  ranks  among  the  most  important  in  the  West 
and  South,  having  opened  up  to  commerce  avast  areaof  coun- 
try whose  immense  wealth  in  minerals — especially  coal — cereals, 
tobacco  and  cotton,  has  added  largely  to  the  business  of  the 
towns  and  cities  on  its  line  and  at  its  termini. 

The  St.  Louis  and  Southeastern  furnishes  the  shortest  and 
most  direct  route  to  Evansville,  Nashville,  Chattanooga,  At- 
lanta, Augusta,  Columbia,  Tallahassee,  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  the 
ports  on  the  Gulf  and  the  seaboard  cities  of  the  Southeast.      It 


156  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

is  very  fortunate  in  its  numerous  and  close  connections  with 
other  railroads,  which  enable  passengers  to  easily  reach  places 
off  the  direct  line  of  the  road.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  shortest  line 
between  the  Northwest  and  the  Southeast.  The  entire  train 
starts  from  the  Union  Depot  in  St.  Louis  and  crosses  the 
Mississippi  River  over  the  great  steel  bridge,  and  is  the  only 
line  running  Pullman  sleeping  cars  on  all  night  trains  from 
St.  Louis  to  Nashville,  Tenn.  ;  close  connections  being  made  at 
Nashville  with  all  trains  for  the  South  and  Southeast.  The 
passenger  trains  are  made  up  of  first-class  coaches,  well  fur- 
nished, and  combining  all  the  modern  improvements,  including 
the  Westinghouse  air-brake  and  the  Miller  safety  platform. 
The  express  trains  leaving  St.  Louis  daily  by  this  popular 
through  line  arrive  in  Nashville  ahead  of  all  others. 

At  Ashley,  111.,  about  sixty  miles  from  St.  Louis,  the  South- 
eastern crosses  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad.  At  Enfield  it 
crosses  the  Springfield  branch  of  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Rail- 
road ;  at  Carmi  the  Cairo  &  Vincennes  Railroad,  and  at  Evans- 
ville  connects  with  the  Evansville  &  Crawfordsville  Railroad, 
and  the  various  lines  of  steamers  on  the  Ohio  River.  From 
McLeansboro,  111.,  a  branch  extends  to  Shawneetown,  cross- 
ing the  Cairo  &  Vincennes  road  at  Eldorado,  and  passing  by 
the  immense  coal  mines  and  salt  wells  at  Equality,  111.  ;  at 
Nortonville,  Ky.,  the  Elizabethtown  &  Paducah  Railroad  is 
crossed  ;  at  Guthrie  the  Memphis  Division  of  the  Louisville 
&  Nashville  ;  and  at  Edgefield  Junction  a  union  is  formed 
with  the  main  line  of  the  Louisville  &  Nashville  road  ;  while  at 
the  city  of  Nashville,  as  already  stated,  connection  is  made  with 
railroads  traversing  the  South  in  every  direction. 

The  road  is  kept  in  excellent  order  and  is  well  equipped  in 
every  respect,  and  its  trains  are  always  in  charge  of  careful 
and  competent  men.  According  to  a  recent  report  of  the  Gen- 
eral Manager,  the  road  is  not  only  doing  well  for  these  times 
but  steadily  gaining  ground.  The  freighting  business  is  already 
large  and  rapidly  increasing  in  volume,  and  must  continue  to 
increase  as  the  productiveness  of  the  country  becomes  more 
and  more  developed.  Its  share  of  the  business  arising  from 
the  interchange  of  products  between  the  Northwestern  grain- 
growing  and  Southeastern  cotton  and  tobacco  growing  States 


KAILWAYS.  157 

is  very  large,  and  its  local  traffic  will  soon  be  fully  equal  to  its 
capacity  for  transportation.  The  productive  wheat,  oats  and 
corn  lands  along  the  line  of  the  road,  and  the  Avell-nigh  inex- 
haustible coal  fields  over  which  it  passes,  will  constantly  prove 
never-failing  sources  of  freightage,  and  will  very  materially 
affect  the  manufacturing  interests  of  St.  Louis,  Evans\dlle  and 
other  cities  on  its  line.  The  railway  is  under  a  most  careful 
and  able  management  and  its  patrons  can  always  rely  upon 
fair  dealing  and  courteous  treatment  from  its  officers  and 
agents. 

The  St.  Louis  &  Southeastern  Railway  (consolidated), 
comprises  the  St.  Louis  Division,  151  miles  in  length  ;  the 
Nashville  Division,  155  miles;  the  O'Fallon  Branch,  6  miles, 
and  the  Shawneetown  Branch,  42  miles.  Total  length  of  line 
of  the  road,  353  miles.  The  general  offices  of  the  company 
are  among  the  most  tastefully  arranged  and  attractive  in  the 
city  of  St.  Louis,  and  are  located  in  the  elegant  new  building 
on  the  northwest  corner  of  Third  and  Chestnut  streets. 

Of  the  officers  of  the  Southeastern  it  is  but  just  to  say  that 
they  all  are  thoroughly  competent  men  and  faithful  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  respective  duties.  Gen.  James  H.Wilson,  the 
General  Manager  of  the  road  and  its  former  Vice-President,  is 
a  gentleman  of  superior  executive  ability  and  of  much  decision 
and  force  of  character.  He  is  a  thorough  scholar,  being  a 
graduate  of  West  Point,  and  is  one  whose  talents  and  acquire- 
ments would  distinguish  him  in  any  community  or  in  any 
pursuit  in  life.  Mr.  John  W.  Mass,  General  Passenger  and 
Ticket  Agent,  has  been  practically  identified  for  many  years 
with  railroading  in  this  country,  and  has  been  identified  with 
the  road  from  its  beginning.  He  is  a  most  energetic  officer 
and  thoroughly  practical  in  all  his  business  relations,  with  a 
complete  knowledge  of  all  the  duties  pertaining  to  his  respon- 
sible position.  Mr.  Chauncey  H.  Crosby,  General  Freight 
Agent,  also  occupies  an  enviable  position  as  a  reliable,  practical 
business  man.  He  guards  and  manages  the  interests  intrusted 
to  him  with  fidelity  ;  and  hence  their  prosperity. 


158  TOUU    OF    ST.    LOUIS, 

ST.  LOUIS  &  SAN  FRANCISCO  RAILWAY. 

This  proposed  tnins-contineiital  highway  for  commerce  in 
many  respects  is  the  most  important  road  St.  Louis  has.  The 
objects  of  the  corporation,  as  expressed  in  a  pamphlet  pub- 
lished several  years  ago,  is  to  build  a  railroad  connecting  the 
interests  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacihc  coasts,  on  a  parallel  of 
latitude  (the  35th)  perpetual! //  free  frotn  snoir.  The  Atlantic 
&  Pacific  Railroad  Compau}-  was  incorporated  by  an  act  of 
Congress  July  27,  1866,  and  with  the  act  of  incorporation  a 
grant  of  lands  was  made  to  the  company  of  ten  alternate 
sections  on  each  side  of  the  road  when  it  was  completed 
through  any  State,  and  twenty  alternate  sections  when  it  was 
completed  through  any  Territory.  The  road  also  came  into 
possession  of  the  lands  donated  to  Missouri  in  1852  as  an  in- 
centive for  the  construction  of  a  raib'oad  fi"om  St.  Louis  to  the 
western  boundary  of  the  State. 

In  1872  the  Atlantic  &  Pacific  road  took  a  lease  of  the 
Missouri  Pacific,  and  the  roads  were  operated  under  a  single 
management  about  four  years,  when  a  dissolution  was  made 
in  1876,  when  the  name  of  the  company  was  changed  to  the 
St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  Railway,  and  has  since  remained 
an  independent  organization. 

The  road  is  now  in  complete  running  order  to  Vinita, 
Indian  Territory,  a  distance  of  365  miles,  equal  to  the  entire 
length  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  Some  of  the  most  important 
towns  along  the  line  of  the  road  are  Cuba,  Rolla,  Lebanon, 
Marshfield,  Springfield,  Pierce  City,  Granby,  and  Neosho,  all 
thriving  places,  with  good  schools,  fine  churches,  handsome 
public  buildings,  large  stores,  and  every  evidence  of  the  most 
cultivated  society. 

At  Cuba  the  road  forms  connections  with  the  St.  Louis, 
Salem  &  Little  Rock,  a  road  of  forty  miles  length,  which  j^en- 
etrates  the  rich  iron  regions  of  Dent  and  Crawford  counties. 
At  Pierce  City  it  connects  with  the  Missouri  &  Western  Rail- 
road, which  is  completed  to  Oswego,  Kansas,  and  has  a  branch 
running  to  Joplin,  the  largest  town  in  Southwest  Missouri, 
and  the  queen  city  of  the  greatest  lead  mines  in  the  world. 
By  these  branches  St.  Louis  is  placed  in  direct  relations  with 


RAILWAYS. 


15!) 


this  invaluable  mineral  section,  making  the  St.  Louis  &  San 
Francisco  Railway  the  conveyance  for  the  millions  pounds  of 
lead  and  zinc  mined  and  smelted  for  this  market.  Another 
connection  at  Pierce  City  will  soon  be  made  with  a  projected 
road  extending  to  Fayetteville  and  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas, 
which,  when  completed,  will  prove  a  large  feeder  and  valuable 
adjunct. 

At  Vinita  the  St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  connects  with  the 
Missouri,  Kansas  &  Texas,  and  thereby  forms  a  direct  route 
to  Texas  and  the  great  Southwest. 


By  examining  the  map,  showing  connections  and  the 
counties  this  great  road  penetrates  in  its  course  towards  the 
Paciiic  slope,  it  will  be  seen  that  its  importance  to  St.  Louis 
cannot  be  overestimated.  Starting  from  the  great  commercial 
center  of  the  continent,  it  makes  a  graceful  swoop  down  through 
the  almost  eternal  spring  of  a  developed  and  yet  richer  un- 
developed country,  where  the  pregnant  lands  of  a  beautiful 
territor}'  are  impatient!}'  awaiting  the  voice  of  the  husband- 
man and  the  kiss  of  his  plow.  The  germ  of  a  big  harvest  lies 
on  every  hill  and  labors  in  the  confines  of  every  valley,  avIumv^ 
it  only  awaits  the  turning  of  the  sod  to  burst  out  in  rich 
abundance. 

Through  the  great  Southwest,  upon  an  errand  of  immense 
commercial  import,  runs  the  St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco,  con- 
fident in  the  near  dawn  of  a  new  empire,  in  which  the  brawn 
of  the  farmer  will  rule,  and  the  subjects  will  be  the  laughing 
grain  and  the  noisome  cattle.     Of  these  beautiful  and  i)roliHc 


160  TOUR    OF    ST=    LOUIS. 

lands,  over  900,000  acres  are  for  sale  on  such  terms  as  enable 
every  man  of  the  most  limited  means  to  own  a  tarm  and  be- 
come as  independent  as  an  autocrat ;  to  make  himself  a  home 
where  wealth,  health  and  happiness  are  so  complete  and 
bounteous  as  to  preclude  the  entrance  of  any  ills  or  misfor- 
tunes. The  work  is  but  to  sow  the  seed  and  reap  the  harvest. 
Concerning  the  officers  of  the  St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco 
Railway,  some  mention  at  least  is  certainly  appropriate  in  this 
connection.  Hon.  James  Baker,  the  President,  was  for  many 
years  the  attorney  for  the  Atlantic  &  Pacific  and  the  Missouri 
Pacific  railroads,  under  the  consolidation  of  the  two  roads. 
He  is  a  gentleman  of  ripe  experience,  and  his  knowledge  of 
the  desiijns  of  the  road  and  influence  in  the  makino;  of  the 
Texas  &  Pacific  Railroad  an  accomplished  fact,  make  him  an 
inestimable  executive  officer. 

C.  W.  Rogers,  the  Superintendent,  has  been  actively  con- 
nected with  the  road  since  1871,  and  aside  of  his  thorough 
railroad  knowledge  he  has  an  unlimited  number  of  friends, 
whose  friendship  is  important  to  the  road.  He  is  devoted  to 
his  duties,  always  courteous,  and  his  fitness  for  the  position  he 
occupies  is  conspicuous. 

D.  Wishart,  the  General  Freight  and  Passenger  Agent, 
although  not  yet  thirty  years  of  age,  is  one  of  the  most  active 
and  efficient  men  in  the  railroad  service.  His  intuitive  tact 
and  thorouijh  understandino-  of  his  duties  is  acknowled2i:ed  in 
railroad  circles,  and  in  the  dual  position  he  occupies  no  one 
could  exhibit  greater  competence. 

W.  H.  Coffin,  the  courteous  Land  Commissioner  of  the 
road,  with  headquarters  in  this  city,  has  devoted  many  years 
of  his  life,  as  well  also  as  much  of  his  means,  to  the  promotion 
of  the  interests  of  the  road.  Mr.  Coffin  is  a  gentleman  of  the 
greatest  popularity,  one  who  thoroughly  understands  his 
business,  and  an  officer  with  whom  it  is  an  absolute  pleasure 
to  come  in  contact. 


RAILWAYS. 


lt)l 


THE  VANDiVLIA  RAILROAD. 

« 

There  is  no  line  of  railway  converging  into  the  Mississippi 
basin  more  popular  with  the  public  than  the  Vandalia.  It  is 
the  band  of  all  others  that  binds  the  West  and  East  in  indis- 
soluble ties  of  commercial  intei-course.  The  Vandalia  branch 
proper  is  that  portion  of  the  road  between  Terre  Haute  and 
St.  Louis  which  was  completed  on  the  14th  of  June,  1870. 
The  Indianapolis  and  Terre  Haute  division  was  finished  in 
1855,  and  is  therefore  one  of  the  oldest  roads  in  the  West.    The 


RAILROAD  BRIDGE,  FAIRMOUNT  PARK. 

two  divisions  were  united  under  one  oro^anization  and  manajje- 
ment  in  the  year  1870,  since  which  time  the  road  has  been  one 
of  the  most  potent  factors  in  the  development  of  Central  Illi- 
nois and  of  St.  Louis  herself.  It  has  immediate  connections 
with  the  Pan  Handle  and  Pennsylvania  railroads,  traversing 
the  most  fertile  and  romantic  districts  of  the  Middle  States  ; 
passing  through  the  most  magnificent  scenery,  doubling  the 
highest  mountains  and  plunging  through  the  most  graceful 
valleys  of  the  continent,  and  entering  New  York  City  by  the 


162  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

shortest  and  most  direct  route  to  the  Northeastern  seaboard 
cities. 

The  Yandalia  was  the  first  road  crossing  the  Mississippi 
River  to  introduce  the  Westinghouse  air-brake  ;  the  first  to 
run  through  cars  to  New  York,  and  the  one  to  initiate  the 
limited  lightning  mail ;  and  following  up  their  advantages  over 
competing  lines,  it  has  just  added  sumptuous  Pullman  hotel 
cars,  in  which  passengers  can  secure  their  meals  or  luncheons 
at  the  same  prices  charged  at  the  eating  stations.  In  the  adop- 
tion of  new  improvements  to  secure  the  comfort  and  safety  of 
its  passengers  it  has  been  the  pioneer,  and  its  competing  roads 
only  imitators.  The  road-bed,  though  but  eight  years  old,  is 
laid  with  stones,  and  is  so  substantial  as  to  prove  invulnerable 
from  freshets,  especially  as  its  system  of  culverts  is  as  perfect 
as  nearly  any  of  the  oldest  Eastern  roads.  The  track  is  of 
steel  rails,  and  its  coaches  are  magnificent,  including  Pullman's 
drawing-room  and  sleeping  palaces.  One  of  the  novel  feat- 
ures of  the  Vandalia  Through  Line,  which  eftectually  provides 
against  all  possilnlity  of  collision  or  other  accident,  is  what  is 
known  as  the  "  Block  Signal  System."  The  telegraph  sta- 
tions are  surmounted  by  graceful  towers,  in  which  are  three 
signals — one  indicating  danger,  another  caution,  and  the  third 
safety.  These  stations  are  of  a  sufficient  distance  apart  to 
warn  approaching  trains  and  give  the  engineer  information  as 
to  his  safety  in  driving  his  train  at  a  rapid  rate.  In  fact,  there 
is  nothing  omitted,  no  care  nor  money  spared  to  make  the  road 
what  it  is,  the  finest  and  best  equipped  road  running  into  St. 
Louis  ;  and  the  safest,  shortest  and  most  economic  line  to  New 
York  and  the  East ;  taking  passengers  through  on  quicker  time 
and  whirling  through  the  most  gorgeous  and  awe-inspiring 
scenery,  the  finest  cities,  including  Yandalia,  the  ancient  capi- 
tal of  Illinois,  and  the  capitals  of  Indiana,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey  ;  through  Altoona,  Bryn  Mawr,  and  over  the 
great  railroad  bridge  at  Fairmount  Park,  on  to  the  metropolis  of 
America,  in  better  style  and  more  satisfactory  manner  gener- 
ally than  any  other  line  running  eastward. 

The  Yandalia  is  officered  not  only  by  men  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished experience  and  ability,  but  with  gentlemen  whose 
dispositions  are  such  as  to   win  the  popular  esteem  of  the 


RAILWAVS. 


103 


public.  W.  R.  McKeen,  the  President,  is  an  experienced  rail- 
road gentleman  of  large  means  and  is  thoroughly  enterprising 
und  progressive.  Major  John  El.  Simpson,  the  General  Mana- 
ger, is  beyond  question  one  of  the  most  popular  railroad  officials 
in  the  West,  He  has  won  his  Avay  up  from  newsboy  and  tele- 
graph operator  through  the  successive  gradations  of  railroad  life, 
in  every  position  exhibiting  qualifications  eminently  fitting  him 
for  promotion  ;  careful  of  his  charge  and  devoted  to  the  inter- 
ests of  his  employers,  until  now  he  is  the  head  and  directing 
spirit   of  one  of  the  finest   lines  of  railway  in  America.     N(> 


ALTOONA  STATION. 


person  ever  approached  Major  Simpson  that  did  not  always 
find  him  affable,  kindly  and  a  perfect  gentleman.  These  char- 
acteristics, added  to  a  sound  judgment  and  signal  ability,  have 
made  him  a  favorite  with  the  people  and  secured  the  largest 
patronage  for  his  road.  Charles  E.  Follett,  the  General  Pas- 
senger Agent,  IS  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  accomplished  pas- 
senger officials  in  the  country,  and  a  most  valuable  adjunct  to 
the  road.     H.  AV.  Hil)bard,   the    General    Freight   Ao:ent,   is 


164  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

thorough  in  his  position  and  is  very  popular  with  Western  ship- 
pers, enjoying  a  large  acquaintance  and  performing  duties  few 
men  are  fitted. for.  F.  M.  Colburn,  the  General  Ticket  Agent 
in  charge  of  the  Company's  office  at  No.  100  North  Fourth 
Street,  is  an  old  St.  Louisan,  having  been  born  on  the  present 
site  of  the  Everett  House  in  1826.  Fred,  as  he  is  familiarly 
called,  has  an  extensive  acquaintance,  and  is  the  most  popular 
agent  in  the  West.  He  is  the  very  embodiment  of  true  cour- 
tesy, and  in  his  resj^onsible  position  is  an  indispensable  feature 
of  the  road.  All  these  gentlemen  appreciate  their  relation  to 
the  public ;  are  devoid  of  that  unnecessary  stiffness  so  often 
exhibited  by  officials,  and  have  i^luced  themselves  upon  a  plane 
with  shippers  and  passengers,  thereby  not  only  popularizing 
themselves  individually  but  building  up  a  business  for  the  road 
much  larger  than  that  of  any  competing  line. 


ST.  LOUIS,  KANSAS  CITY  &  NORTHERN  RAILWAY. 

The  history  of  the  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City  &  Northern 
Railway  is  a  long  one,  and  were  it  given  here  complete  would 
cover  many  pages  without  subserving  any  particular  purpose  ; 
we  deem  it  only  necessary,  therefore,  to  present  the  road  in 
its  relation  to  the  commerce  of  the  great  West.  The  road 
was,  up  to  1871,  known  as  the  *'  North  Missouri,"  running 
from  St.  Louis  to  Ottumwa,  Iowa,  with  a  branch  extending  to 
Kansas  City.  About  this  time  the  company  was  reorganized 
and  another  management  succeeded,  by  whom  the  most  mate- 
rial improvements  have  been  made.  Chief  amongst  these  was 
the  construction  of  the  iron  l)ridge  across  the  Missouri  River 
at  St.  Cliarles  ;  this  structure  is  one  mile  and  a  quarter  in 
length,  seventy-five  feet  above  the  low-water  surface  of  the 
river,  and  cost  $2,100,000.  But  with  this  large  expenditure 
the  improvements  of  the  road  only  begun.  New  rolling  stock 
was  added,  steel  rails  supplanted  the  iron,  new  branches  Avere 
constructed,  and  the  largest  and  finest  machine  shops  west  of 


KAIL  WAYS. 


1G5 


the  Mississip})!  were  built  at 
Moberly,  which  cover  an 
area  of  117,352  feet  of  solid 
buildings,  with  a  yardage  of 
two  hundred  acres. 

But    the     improvements 
continued  unabated,  marking 
at  every  step  the  determina- 
tion of  the  mana2:ers  to  make 
it  the  finest  road  in  the  "West. 
The    next  addition  was  the 
rejjlacement    of  the  regular 
passenger  coaches  with  mag- 
nificent   parlor -chair    cars, 
which  have  reversible  seat's  w 
with  tall   backs,  and   all  the  | 
comforts  of  an  easy  rockino;-  '^ 
chair.     In  these  cars  passen-  5, 
gers    are   exempt   from    the  ^ 
annoyance    of    shiftless    and  ^ 
cramping  positions,    but  go  p 
bowling    over    the     smooth  ^ 
steel  rails  with  an  ease  which  ^ 
can  only  be  likened  to  a  ride 
on  scudding  banks  of  clouds 

When  the  new  Union 
Depot  was  built,  the  St 
Louis,  Kansas  City  &  North- 
ern Railway  entered  the  cit} 
at  the  foot  of  Biddle  Street, 
and  every  conceivable  oppo- 
sition was  used  io  prevent 
the  road  from  rcachins:  the 
central  passenger  depot.  But 
the  antagonism,  virulent  and 
active  as  it  w^as,  could  not 
prevail  against  the  settled 
purpose  of  its  officers.       A 


branch  from  Ferguson  station,  ten  miles  distant  trom  the  city, 


166  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

was  pushed  to  completion,  which  required  more  than  a  mile  of 
tunneling  through  solid  rock  and  deep  trenching  a  greater 
part  of  the  distance.  This  branch  crosses  the  northeast  corner 
of  Forest  Park,  over  a  beautiful  viaduct,  and  the  company  has 
built  an  ornate  depot  at  the  entrance  of  the  park  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  passengers  to  and  from  this  sylvan,  orna- 
mental enclosure. 

These  improvements  have  involved  the  expenditure  of  more 
than  $5,000,000,  but  large  and  almost  extravagant,  yet  neces- 
sary, as  they  are,  did  not  complete  the  designs  of  the  manage- 
ment. The  grandest  scheme  remains  yet  to  be  detailed,  not 
as  a  conception,  but  as  the  full  fruition  of  accomplishment. 
St.  Louis  has  for  years  sat  as  one  a-hungered  upon  the  banks 
of  a  stream  and  watched  the  bread  cast  by  fraternal  hands  float 
by  beyond  her  reach.  We  had  a  great  stream,  but  it  brought 
not  the  rich  cereal  products  of  the  North  to  our  doors,  for 
Chicago's  latitudinal  lines  of  railway  had  grasped  the  trade  of 
our  own  rightful  territory  and  held  it  a  willing  captive  because 
St.  Louis  had  no  facilities  for  nourishing  and  wooing  the  fair 
Ceres  of  Minnesota  and  Iowa.'  But  the  change  has  come» 
like  a  lover  o'erleaping  the  fretted  Avails  which  divined  eternal 
separation,  and  the  bonds  of  natural  union  have  at  length  been 
forged  by  the  construction  of  a  through  line  of  road  from  St. 
Louis  to  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis.  This  was  the  last  grand 
achievement  of  the  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City  &  Northern  Rail- 
way, and  now  it  may  repose  for  a  time  upon  its  aegis  and  say 
to  competition,  "What  is  there  to  offer?"  This  great  line  of 
railroad  has  now  its  connecting  links  trans-continental,  and  is 
the  longitudinal  thoroughfare  for  the  products  of  the  North  in 
their  natural  route  to  the  sea  ;  spanning  three  states  and  grasp- 
ing the  trade  of  an  empire  ;  penetrating  the  lieautiful  region 
of  blue  waters,  salubrious  atmosphere  and  Indian  lakes ; 
through  a  territory  of  illimitable  expanse  and  boundless  re 
sources  ;  a  route  of  magnificent  scenery  and  pleasure  to  tour- 
ists from  the  South,  and  the  main  channel  for  the  commerce 
of  the  Northwestern  States  :  surely  the  combination  of  advan- 
tages is  complete,  and  the  claim  of  the  road  to  superior  facili- 
ties, most  elegant  equipment,  best  management,  and  the  finest 
country  to  support  it,  must  be  acknowledged. 


RAILWAYS.  1G7 

B.  W.  Lewis,  Esq.,  the  President,  is  a  gentleman  compar- 
atively young  in  years,  but  one  who  fully  comprehends  the 
responsibility  he  assumes,  and  with  no  faltering  spirit  sets 
about  the  task  of  accomplishing  results  which  will  advance  the 
interests  of  the  company.  Thomas  McKissock,  the  Superin- 
tendent, has  an  extensive  experience  and  is  pronounced  one  of 
the  best  railroad  managers  in  America.  Charles  K.  Lord,  the 
General  Passenger  Agent,  is  undoubtedly  the  most  popular 
ticket  agent  in  the  West.  He  has  been  connected  with  the 
road  since  1874,  and  was  advanced  to  his  present  position  in 
six  months  from  the  date  of  his  first  connection  with  the  com- 
pany. He  has  every  characteristic  to  popularize  him  with  the 
public,  and  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his  duties,  in  which 
he  takes  supreme  pleasure,  his  services  are  of  inestimable 
value  to  the  road.  A.  C.  Bird,  the  General  Freight  Agent,  is  a 
gentleman  of  courteous  address,  and  an  adaptability  to  the 
duties  of  his  position  ;  with  an  extensive  acquaintance  and 
universal  popularity,  he  brings  a  large  prestige  to  the  road, 
which  is  demonstrated  by  the  rapid  increase  of  freight  busi- 
ness since  his  induction  into  office. 

With  such  a  corps  of  officials  and  the  advantages  men- 
tioned, the  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City  &  Northern  Railway  is 
unquestionably  one  of  the  great  roads  of  the  continent,  and  an 
artery  of  commerce  of  inestimable  importance  to  St.  Louis. 


168  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

MISSOURI  PACIFIC  RAILWAY. 

Crossing  from  the  east  the  magnificent  steel  bridge  which 
spans  the  "Mighty  Mississippi,"  and  passing  through  the 
tunnel  which  wends  its  way  under  the  very  heart  of  the  city, 
the  passenger  arrives  at  the  St.  Louis  Union  Depot,  and  finds 
himself  safely  landed  in  readiness  to  take  the  train  of  the 
most  popular  Western  thoroughfare,  the  Missouri  Pacific 
through  line.  It  is  the  great  fast  mail  route  to  the  far  West, 
and  its  two  daily  express  trains  are  always  filled  with  people 
en  route  to  Missouri,  Kansas,  Texas,  Colorado,  New  Mexico, 
Arizona,  Nebraska,  Dakota,  Wyoming,  Utah,  Idaho,  Montana, 
California,  Oregon  and  Washington  Territory. 

To  all  of  these  various  States  and  Territories,  the  Missouri 
Pacific  and  its  connecting  lines  affords  a  direct  and  advanta- 
geous route,  and  through  trains  and  through  sleeping  cars  run 
between  St.  Louis  and  the  principal  Western  cities. 

lu  addition  to  the  foregoing,  it  may  be  stated  that  the 
Missouri  Pacific  road-bed  is  in  the  best  of  order  ;  in  the  track 
steel  rails  of  the  heaviest  pattern  are  used,  and  its  trains  are 
thoroughly  equijjped  with  the  Miller  Platform,  Westinghouse 
Air  Brake,  and  other  appliances  conducive  to  safety,  comfort 
and  speed. 

From  St.  Louis  to  Sedalia,  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine 
miles,  the  Missouri  Pacific  through  line  passes  through  the 
most  picturesque  portion  of  the  State  of  Missouri. 

Between  these  two  cities  are  located  many  flourishing 
towns  and  villages,  among  which  may  be  named  Kirkvvood, 
Washington,  Hermann,  Jefferson  City  (the  State  capital), 
California  and  Tipton,  all  live,  "  go-a-head  "  places.  From 
Tipton  a  branch  road  extends  to  Boonville,  where  connection 
is  made  by  means  of  the  steamer  "  Headlight,"  for  Arrow 
Rock  and  way  landings  on  the  Missouri  River. 

Sedalia,  the  Queen  City  of  Central  Missouri,  has  a  popu- 
lation of  about  twenty  thousand  souls,  and  is  the  junction  for 
the  branch  road  to  Lexington,  Missouri,  and  also  for  the  Mis- 
souri, Kansas  &  Texas  Railway,  which  extends  its  iron  arms 
down  through  Southern  Kansas  and  the  Indian  Territory  to 
Denison  in  Texas.      The  city  is  of  ])ut  a  few  years'  gro>\-th, 


RAILWAYS.  1()9 

but  its  success  has  been  un[)arallolcrl  in  the  history  of  Western 
towns,  and  it  looks  forward  contidentlj  to  a  still  brighter 
future. 

The  distance  from  St.  Louis  to  Kansas  City  is  two  hundred 
and  eighty-three  miles.  The  city  is  the  metropolis  of  West- 
ern jSIissouri,  and  is  the  great  objective  point  for  travelers  to 
all  parts  of  Kansas  and  the  far  West. 

Between  Sedalia  and  Kansas  City  the  principal  towns  are 
Knobnoster,  Warrensburg  (near  which  place  is  ol^tained  the 
finest  building  stone),  Holden  (a  junction  point  for  the  road 
to  Harrisouville  and  Paola),  Pleasant  Hill  (from  which  point 
a  road  is  built  to  Olathe  and  Lawrence),  Lee's  Summit  and 
Independence. 

Radiating  from  Kansas  City  are  the  roads  to  southern 
Kansas,  to  Omaha,  the  Black  Hills  and  California  ;  to  Denver, 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  San  Juan  countrj^  southern  Colo- 
rado and  New  Mexico.  Beyond  St.  Louis  it  is  the  great  dis- 
tributing point  for  the  whole  country  lying  between  the 
Missouri  River  and  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

Across  the  Kaw  River  into  Kansas,  Wyandotte  comes  next, 
in  order;  then  Leavenworth,  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  the 
State,  and  near  which  is  located  the  military  reservation  and 
Fort  Leavenworth,  an  old  established  Government  post. 
Winding  northward,  the  road  runs  along  the  banks  of  the 
*' Muddy  Missouri"  until  it  reaches  Atchison,  forty-seven 
miles  distant  from  Kansas  City,  and  three  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  from  St.  Louis. 

The  road  is  officered  by  Commodore  C.  K.  Garrison,  Presi- 
dent;  Oliver  Garrison,  Vice-President ;  A.  A.  Talmage,  Gen- 
eral Superintendent;  Frank  E.  Fowler,  Acting  General  Pas- 
senger Agent;  J.  A.  Hill,  General  Freight  Agent;  Charles 
G.  Warner,  Acting  Auditor;  O.  L.  Garrison,  Cashier. 


INTERIOR  Oi    »1.  LOLIS  ^ATIO^AL  BANK 


BANKING  BUSINESS. 


THE  ST.  LOUIS  NATIONAL  BANK. 

The  business  of  banking  belongs  almost  exclusively  to 
modern  times.  Money  changers  and  coin  depositories  were,  to 
some  extent,  known  to  and  patronized  by  the  nations  of  an- 
tiquity ;  but  the  banking  business  as  now  recognized  and  carried 
on  throughout  the  civilized  world  is,  for  the  most  part,  of  very 
recent  origin.  The  development  of  the  world's  great  natural 
resources,  the  enormous  increase  of  the  products  of  the  soil, 
and  the  growth  and  spread  of  commerce,  have  created  a 
necessity  for  all  the  branches  of  the  modern  banking  business. 
It  is  certainly  difficult  now  to  conceive  the  possibility  of  a 
large,  cultivated,  and  industrial  population  existing  without  a 
bank  ;  and  it  has  been  argued  that  much  of  the  political  sub- 
serviency of  ancient  times  was  caused  by  the  very  want  of 
independence  which  the  absence  of  such  an  institution  made 
necessary. 

The  banking  system  has  been  improved  from  time  to  time, 
until  it  has  now  become  well  nigh  perfect.  The  carry  in  <>•  on 
of  the  late  war  necessitated  a  uniformity  of  system  in  the 
banking  operations  of  the  country,  and  to  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
the  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  people  are  indebted 
for  the  introduction  of  our  present  system  of  banking — a 
system  which,  according  to  the  expressed  views  of  many 
approved  financiers,  is  a  marked  improvement  on.  that  which 
has  obtained  for  so  many  years  in  England.  Tlie  national 
banks  invest  their  caj^itals  in  the  bonds  of  the  Government, 
and  by  deposit  of  these  in  the  hands  of  the  Treasury,  receive 
a  proportionate  amount  of  their  value  in  notes,  countersigned 
and  issued  by  the  department,  and  thus  provide  for  the  circu- 
lation among  the  people  of  an  issue  which  is  guaranteed  by  the 

[171] 


172  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

credit  of  the  National  Government.  Thus  the  unity  and  uni- 
formity of  the  currency,  together  with  its  stability,  have  been 
secured.  National  bank  bills  now  circulate  freely  without 
question,  and  at  par,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  the 
business  industry  of  the  country  is  no  longer  liable  to  the 
annoyance  and  danger  of  loss  which  formerly  were  the  logical 
accompaniments  of  the  unsafe,  unstable,  irresponsible  currency 
furnished  by  the  banks  of  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago.  A 
great  reform  was  thus  accomplished  in  the  matter  of  banks 
of  issue,  as  well  as  a  coherence  of  organization  in  the  divided 
and  isolated  portions  of  the  country  entirely  in  accordance 
with  the  present  progressive  era  of  the  world,  which  tends 
towards  introducing  union  and  the  mutual  sympathy  of  a 
common  destiny  among  mankind,  in  the  place  of  the  jealousies 
and  isolations  which  have  hitherto  marked  the  progress  of 
humanity  upon  the  globe. 

There  is  no  actual  necessity,  however,  of  any  extended 
general  review  of  this  subject  in  a  work  of  this  character. 
It  will  suffice,  that  banks  are  universally  recognized  by  all 
civilized  communities  as  indispensable  institutions,  and  as  St. 
Louis  contains  several  great  and  influential  banking  houses,  it 
will  be  entirely  apropos  to  introduce  to  the  reader  a  leading 
representative  of  them — one  of  the  foremost  of  these  institutions 
in  the  West.  A  visit  to  the  St.  Louis  National  Bank,  and  a  brief 
description  of  it,  its  history  and  the  volume  of  business  it 
transacts,  will,  therefore,  not  prove  uninteresting  to  the  general 
reader. 

On  the  northwest  corner  of  Chestnut  and  Third  streets,  in 
that  conspicuously  grand  building  and  triumph  of  architecture, 
known  well  throughout  the  West  as  the  "Merchants'  Ex- 
change," is  situated  the  equally  well-known  St.  Louis  National 
Bank.  A  few  steps  up  the  solid  stone  stairway,  and  a  short 
turn  to  the  left  brings  the  visitor  to  the  portal  through  which 
he  enters  the  spacious  and  handsomely  appointed  main  apart- 
ment of  the  institution.  Everything  in  this  large  and  elegant 
room  seems  adapted  in  taste  and  utility  commensurate  with 
the  high  character  of  the  bank  and  its  legion  of  patrons. 
The  numerous  long,  high  desks,  each  with  its  quota  of  busy 
accountants,  piles  of  books  and  pyramids  of  canceled  checks, 


BANKING    BUSINESS.  173 

drafts  and  other  papers,  afford  at  once  an  impressive  and 
interesting  spectacle.  Added  to  this  scene,  the  k)ng  counter 
fronting  the  entrance  is  lined  with  customers  during  banking 
hours,  each  transacting  his  business  or  waiting  his  turn,  pass- 
book in  hand,  whilst  others  are  engaged  at  outside  desks 
filling  out  checks  or  tickets  of  deposit.  All  are  busy  ;  all  are 
in  a  huriy,  and  vast  Avealth  is  constantly  flowing  in  and  out 
over  the  counter,  yet  everything  moves  along  easily,  quietly 
and  systematically. 

Conspicuously  in  the  corner  of  the  front  room  near  the 
entrance,  easily  acceptable  to  all,  sits  the  Cashier,  Mr.  John 
Nickerson,  busily  attending  to  his  official  business,  but  never 
too  closely  occupied  to  note  the  wishes  of  his  patrons  or 
courteously  answer  their  questions  pertaining  to  any  business 
matter  of  mutual  interest.  He  bears  no  resomblance  to  the 
unapproachable,  ornamental  class  of  officials,  unconscious  of 
everything  except  their  own  importance,  but  manifests  by 
word,  as  well  as  deed,  that  he  understands  the  functions  of  his 
position,  and  exercises  them  with  accuracy  and  promptness, 
and  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned.  On  the  desk  of  the 
Cashier  an  electrical  machine  prints  or  stamps  upon  endless 
strips  of  white  paper  the  gold  and  stock  telegrams  which  are 
almost  constantly  passing  over  the  wires,  thus  furnishing 
reliable  information  respecting  all  classes  of  securities  in 
London  and  New  York. 

Passing;  throuo-h  the  crowds  waiting;  in  front  of  the  windows 
of  the  "  receiving  teller,"  the  "  paying  teller,''  the  "  note 
teller,"  etc.,  the  Directors'  Room  in  the  rear  of  the  bank  is 
reached.  It  is  ample  in  its  dimensions,  w^ell  ventilated,  and 
elaborately  furnished  in  every  respect,  impressing  one  with  an 
idea  of  elegance,  yet  maintaining  a  utilitarian,  business-like 
air.  In  this  room  is  to  be  found  during  all  business  hours,  the 
w^idely-known  and  popular  President  of  the  bank,  Mr.  William 
E.  Burr,  who,  like  the  Cashier,  is  always  employed,  yet  always 
ready  to  turn  toward  the  door  and  greet  his  visitors  with  a 
pleasant  and  encouraging  salutation.  He  keeps  himself  con- 
stantly informed  regarding  the  business  of  his  bank,  and  knows 
its  entire  scope  and  magnitude  day  by  day  and  week  by  week. 

The  St.  Louis  National  Bank  was  founded  in  1857,  and  at 


174  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

that  time  was  called  the  '•  Bank  of  St.  Louis."  It  was  then 
located  on  Chestnut  Street  between  Main  and  Second  streets, 
and  was  well  patronized  from  the  beginning.  It  was  changed 
to  the  St.  Louis  National  Bank  in  1864,  and  removed  to  the 
building  on  Olive  Street,  opposite  the  Post-office.  Having 
sold  that  building,  it  moved  in  1875  to  its  present  commodious 
quarters.  The  bank  has  a  capital  of  half  a  million  of  dollars, 
in  addition  to  which  it  has  a  cash  surplus  of  $100,000.  It 
handles  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  million  of  dollars 
annually,  and  has  the  most  extensive  country  business  of  any 
bank  in  the  city.  The  Government  funds  collected  in  the  city 
and  in  a  large  extent  of  surrounding  country  are  all  deposited 
in  this  bank.  All  the  collections  of  the  Internal  Revenue 
Office,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Post-office  and  the  Bankrupt 
Courts,  are  placed  in  this  bank,  and  swell  its  deposit  account 
to  an  enormous  extent. 

The  first  President  of  the  bank  was  Mr.  John  J.  Anderson, 
who  was  elected  in  1857,  and  served  until  1860.  His  suc- 
cessor was  Mr.  R.  P.  Hanenkamp,  who  served  until  1863, 
when  Mr.  Burr  was  elected,  and  has  retained  the  office  ever 
since.  The  following-named  gentlemen  constitute  the  present 
Board  of  Directors  :  Wm.  E.  Burr,  Nathan  Cole,  J.  G.  Chap- 
man, S.  H.  Laflin,  F.  Mitchell,  I.  M.  Nelson,  J.  G.  Priest,  J. 
L.  Stephens,  J.  H.  Wear. 

During  the  severe  financial  troubles  of  1873,  the  St.  Louis 
National  Bank  increased  its  volume  of  business  to  a  wonderful 
extent.  Its  stability  being  well  known,  new  customers  fl^ocked 
to  it  by  hundreds,  and  it  was  enabled  to  loan  several  hundred 
thousand  dollars  to  some  of  its  less  fortunate  contempo- 
raries. When  the  failure  of  the  National  Bank  of  the  State 
tied  up  for  the  time  being  the  deposits  belonging  to  the  Bank- 
rui^t  Courts,  the  St.  Louis  National  promptly  came  to  the 
rescue,  and  advanced  u^jon  its  own  responsibility,  nearly  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  cash.  This  liberality  so  clearly 
entitled  it  to  tlie  deposits  of  the  Bankrupt  Courts,  that  its 
well-earned  claim  could  not  be  disputed.  Great  as  the 
business  of  the  bank  has  been  during  the  past  twenty  years, 
it  is  still  augmenting  with  unexampled  rapidity,  and  in  another 
decade  it  will  have  attained  a  business  trulv  collossal. 


BANKING    BUSINESS.  17") 

BROADWAY  SAVINGS  BANK. 

The  Broadway  Saviiiirs  Bunk,  one  of  the  stannch  and  popular 
moneyed  institutions  of  the  West,  has  made  a  success  no  less 
than  remarkable,  as  its  history  will  show.  The  bank  was  fii-.st 
organized  March  4,  1.S69,  Avith  a  subscribed  capital  of  $;)()0,()()(), 
twenty  per  cent,  of  which  was  paid  in,  giving  a  v»'orking  capital 
of  $60,000.  It  was  located  on  the  corner  of  Broadway  and 
Carr  Street,  where  it  still  remains,  in  the  center  of  a  large 
commission  business  and  convenient  for  the  horse,  mule  and 
cattle  trade.  The  institution  was  organized  upon  a  non-divi- 
dend declaring  basis,  by  which  the  pro  tits  have  been  added  to 
the  surplus  until  its  actual  working  capital  has  l)een  swelled 
from  $60,000  to  $285,000  in  the  short  period  of  nine  years. 
Few  banks  can  show  so  favorable  exhibit,  and  wherever  it  can 
be  done  the  officers  are  entitled  to  the  fullest  meed  of  praise. 
During  the  great  panic  of  1873  and  later  in  1876,  the  Broad- 
way Savings  Bank  met  the  shock  without  a  sign  of  trepidation 
and  retained  the  coniidence  of  its  depositors.  The  officers  of 
the  bank,  who  have  held  their  positions  since  its  organization, 
are  :  L.  S.  Bargen,  President ;  J.  P.  Krieger,  Sr.,  Vice-Presi- 
dent ;  J.  P.  Krieger,  Jr.,  Cashier  ;  H.  Grass,  Assistant  Cashier. 

]Mr.  Barren  is  an  old  citizen  of  laro;e  means  and  unblem- 
ished  character,  worthy  of  the  most  important  trust  and  con- 
fidence. Mr.  Krieger,  Sr.,  was  among  the  first  to  propose  the 
organization  of  the  bank,  and  he  has  utilized  his  extensive 
acquaintance,  large  fortune  and  ability,  in  promoting  the 
interests  of  the  bank.  His  son,  J.  P.  Krieger,  Jr.,  now  in  his 
thirty-fifth  year,  has  been  entrusted  to  a  large  extent  with  the 
management  of  the  bank,  and  displayed  a  business  knowledge 
and  adiiptal)ilitv  possessed  bv  few  of  our  commercial  men. 
In  addition  to  his  arduous  duties  as  cashier  of  the  l)ank  he  is 
the  treasurer  of  the  St.  Louis  Public  School  Fund,  in  whicli 
position  he  has  given  the  most  perfect  satisfaction . 

The  growth  of  the  bank  has  been  rapid  and  uniform,  until 
its  deposits  now  aggregate  $1,200,000.  This  favorable  show- 
ins^  not  only  reflects  honor  upon  the  officers,  but  upon  the 
directory  also,  and  gives  proof  of  its  stability  and  bright  promise 
for  the  future  of  the  bank. 


176  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

P.  F.  KELEHER  &  CO. 

Among  the  prominent  brokers  of  the  West,  as  ■well  also  as 
favorably  known  throughout  the  money  centers  of  the  country, 
P.  F.  Keleher  &  Co.  stand  conspicuous.  A  confidence,  born 
of  the  vicissitudes  of  many  years,  constitutes  the  mainspring  of 
their  successful  business,  and  a  large  and  ready  capital,  with  a 
credit  baUmce  of  ripe  experience,  make  their  services  valuable 
to  patrons  and  profitable  and  honorable  to  themselves. 

The  firm  is  composed  of  P.  F.  Keleher  and  Wm.  C.  Little, 
both  gentlemen  of  large  banking  experience,  having  received 
their  earliest  education  in  the  leading  financial  institutions  of 
St.  Louis.  The  firm  was  first  established  by  Mr.  Keleher  in 
1870.  He  afterwards  became  connected  with  Mr.  Asa  "W. 
Smith,  under  the  firm  name  of  Keleher,  Smith  &  Co.,  which 
association  was  dissolved  in  1874. 

Shortly  afterwards  Mr.  Keleher  removed  to  No.  307  North 
Third  Street,  where  he  formed  a  copartnership  with  Mr.  Little 
on  May  1,  1876.  Their  business  increased  rapidly  and  it  was 
soon  evident  that  to  transact  the  increasing  volume  it  was 
necessary  to  extend  their  facilities  by  removing  into  more  ca- 
pacious quarters.  Accordingly  the  building  No.  305  Olive 
Street  was  refitted  and  changed  to  accommodate  their  business, 
into  which  they  removed  June  1,  1877.  The  increase,  how- 
ever, still  continues,  until  now  the  firm  of  P.  F.  Keleher  & 
Co.  are  second  to  none  in  St.  Louis.  Li  1877  the  volume  of 
their  business  was  double  as  great  as  it  was  in  the  year  1876, 
and  the  transactions  thus  far  in  the  present  year  shoAV  a  cor- 
respondingly gratifying  exhibit. 

Their  facilities  are  not  surpassed  by  any  house  in  the  West, 
and  they  stand  prepared  to  operate  in  anything  pertaining  to 
finances.  Their  drafts  in  all  parts  of  Europe  are  promptly  hon- 
ored, and  their  experienced  services  sought  by  dealers  generally. 

Messrs.  Keleher  &  Co.  are  now  making  a  specialty  of  buy- 
ing, selling  or  adjusting  defaulted  bonds,  and  compromising 
the  indebtedness  of  counties,  cities  and  towns  of  this  State. 
They  deal,  however,  in  all  kinds  of  bonds  and  securities,  and 
persons  entrusting  business  to  their  care  will  have  their  inter- 
ests efficiently  and  honestly  cared  foi-. 


BANKING    BUSINESS. 


177 


BANK  OF  COMMERCE. 

This  old  and  reliable  bank  presents  a  showing  in  its  last 
semi-annual  report  which  entitles  it  to  a  leading  position  anions 
the  solid  financial  institutions  of  America.  Being  non-dividend 
declaring,  its  strength  is  constantly  increasing  by  a  rapidly 
enlarging  reserve,  giving  it  a  basis  of  unciuestioned  solidity. 
C.  B.  Burnham,  Esq.,  the  President,  is  an  officer  Avhose  repu- 
tation as  a  banker  and  citizen  is  such  as  to  give  him  the  un- 
bounded confidence  of  every  St.  Louisan.  Hon.  Nathan  Cole, 
now  member  of  Congress,  is  Vice-President,  and  J.  C.  Van 
Blarcom  is  the  Cashier. 

The  following  is  the  report  of  the  condition  of  the  Bank  of 
Commerce  at  the  close  of  business  for  December  31,  1877  : 


RESOURCES . 


Cash,         .... 
Sight  Exchange,    . 

U.  S.  Bonds  and  Premium, 
Missouri  State  Bonds, 
Bills  Receivable, 
Exchange  Maturing, 

Real  Estate, 
Furniture  and  Fixtures, 
Suspended  Debt, 


$7G4,62()  59 
342,991  70 


$483,552  79 
281,067  80— 

56,256  70 

286,735  00— 

1,680,438  83 

844,808  56—  2,525,247  39 

35;292  90 

9,112  09 

54,004  65 


$3,731,269  32 


LIABILITIES. 


Capital, 

Reserve  Fund, 

Due  Depositors, 

Due  Banks  and  Bankers, 

Guaranty  Fund,  net  profits  for  1877, 


$  300,000  00 

.   739,046  57— $1,039,046  57 

1,961,609  54 
.   632,153  09—  2,593,762  63 
98,460  12 


$3,731,269  32 


i« 


178  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

BANKING  HOUSE  OF  BARTHOLOW,  LEWIS  &  CO. 

St.  Louis  has  been  noted  for  the  past  half  century  for  the 
solidity  of  her  banks  and  commercial  institutions  :  her  neigh- 
bors, however,  charge  her  with  conservatism,  as  though  it  were 
a  crime  ;  but  if  conservatism  is  the  vital,  elementary  principle 
of  cautiousness,  which  it  undoubtedly  is,  St.  Louis  can  admit 
the  charge  with  a  pride  which  puts  to  l)lush  those  cities  whose 
capital  has  rested  upon  an  uncertain  basis  since  1873. 

Among  the  many  staunch  banking  houses  of  our  city,  that 
of  the  Banking  House  of  Bartholow,  Lewis  &  Co.,  located 
at  No.  217  North  Third  Street,  is  worthy  of  historical  notice. 
It  was  established  as  a  private  bank  in  1866,  under  the  man- 
agement of  Thos.  J.  Bartholow,  Avho  conducted  the  business 
until  1872,  when  the  bank  was  incorporated  under  the  title  of 
the  Banking  House  of  Bartholow,  Lewis  &  Co. 

The  management  of  the  institution  has  always  been  noted 
for  its  liberal  policy  towards  correspondents,  and  its  business 
has  been  gradually  increasing,  until  it  is  now  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  important  moneyed  institutions  of  the  city.  The 
well-known  character  of  one  of  the  original  members  of  the 
firm,  now  the  principal  stockholdei;,  has  made  the  bank  popu- 
lar with  the  interior  banks  of  the  West,  and  from  the  date  of 
establishment  it  has  transacted  the  business  of  a  large  number 
of  banks  having  to  carry  balances  to  their  credit  at  this  point. 

Its  foreign  exchange  business  is  specially  noticeable  on 
account  of  its  extensive  correspondence  on  the  Continent  and 
England,  as  well,  also,  as  a  large  personal  acquaintance  with 
many  of  the  heaviest  bankers  in  Europe.  , 

Mr.  Jno.  D.  Perry,  the  President,  is  one  of  our  oldest  and 
most  esteemed  citizens,  who  was  one  of  the  original  stockhold- 
ers in  the  old  firm.  His  large  exijerience  and  excellent  judg- 
ment have  made  him  a  successful  banker,  and  his  character  is 
of  such  sterling  value  that  he  enjoys  the  confidence  of  business 
men  not  only  of  the  city  but  the  entire  State. 

The  directory  of  the  l)ank  include  some  of  the  wealthiest 
and  best  merchants  of  the  West. 

Mr.  Iglehart,  as  Cashier,  is  well  adapted  to  the  duties 
of  his  position.     He  is  a  gentleman  of  unchangeable  courtesv. 


EXPRESS    BUSINESS.  170 

always  ready  to  do  an  accommodating  service,  ever  present  at 
his  post  of  duty,  and  discharges  his  imi)ortant  offices  with  the 
most  perfect  satisfaction  to  the  board  and  patrons  of  the  hank. 
Notwithstanding  the  stagnation  of  the  times  and  the  small 
demand  for  money,  the  Banking  House  of  Bartholow,  Lewis 
&  Co.  have  done,  and  are  still  doing,  a  profitable  business, 
which  fact  attests  the  popularity  of  the  bank  and  the  estima- 
tion in  which  it  is  hv  St.  Louisans. 


THE  EXPRESS   BUSINESS. 


One  of  the  most  important  modern  advances  made  is  the 
establishment  of  the  express  business.  It  is  in  keeping  with 
the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  and  kindred  improvements  to 
expedite  business  transactions.  We  give  but  a  brief  mention 
of  the  three  leading  companies. 

Adams  Express. — Their  office  is  located  at  No.  212  North 
Fifth  Street.  C  C.  Anderson,  long  and  favorably  known,  is 
the  local  manager.  His  thorough  business  life,  coupled  with 
courteous  manners,  has  given  him  a  large  place  in  the  esteem 
of  our  business  community.  He  is  an  express  man  in  the 
fullest  sense,  and  handles  his  office  with  skill  and  satisfaction. 

American  Express — Is  conveniently  located  at  No.  501 
North  Fourth  Street.  Edwin  Hayden  is  its  efficient  agent. 
He  has  not  been  behind  any  one  in  practical  ideas  for  giving 
the  public  every  facility  for  the  rapid  transit  of  goods.  He  is 
an  approachable  gentleman,  and  a  prompt  and  reliable  business 
man.  He  has  won  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  business 
men  of  St.  Louis. 

United  States  Express. — Its  office  is  No.  500  North 
Fourth  Street,  with  D.  T.  Parker  as  its  local  agent.  The  im- 
mense business  done  by  this  company  is  handled  by  him  with 
skill  and  promptness.  He  is  always  accommodating  and  ready 
to  facilitate  the  business  of  his  Company  to  the  convenience  of 
those  havins  business  with  the  office. 


i**-'Wsiiiiw*ill§! ,'J 


DRY  GOODS  BUSINESS. 


SAMUEL  C.  DAVIS  &  CO. 

The  character  and  extent  of  the  commercial  houses  of  a  city 
largely  indicate  its  business  thrift  and  solidity.  To  the  several 
American  cities  containing  the  old,  wealthy  and  influential  estab- 
lishments whose  firm  names  are  familiar  to  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, this  remark  is  especially  applicable.  The  great  dry  goods 
concerns  of  this  country  have  alwaj's  wielded  a  most  potent 
influence,  and  as  culture  and  taste  and  refinement  become  more 
and  more  the  leading  characteristics  of  communities,  that  in- 
fluence will  continue  to  grow  and  exi^and.  In  this  important 
respect  St.  Uouis  has  for  many  years  been  extensively  adver- 
tised, and  no  where  in  the  West  or  South  is  there  a  dry  goods 
house  of  more  wealth,  prominence  and  commercial  influence 
than  the  long  established  firm  of  Samuel  C.  Davis  &  Co. 

The  business  of  this  well-known  firm  is  co-extensive  with 
the  Western  States  and  Territories,  and  many  of  the  leading 
States  of  the  South,  as  well  as  the  Territories  of  the  Southwest. 
It  is  the  oldest  representative  of  the  dry  goods  trade  of  the 
city — an  establishment  that  has  passed  through  all  the  varying 
phases  of  the  growth  of  the  great  commercial  metropolis  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  and  that  has  borne  a  leading  and  conspicu- 
ous part  in  the  transaction  of  the  most  important  trade  of  the 
citv.  A  house  of  such  a  fame — earned  throug-h  decades  of 
time — may  well  merit,  in  a  city's  history,  something  more  than 
a  passing  notice. 

It  is  nearly  half  a  century  since  this  mammoth  business 
house  was  founded ;  and  it  now  occupies  the  best  dry  goods 
building  in  the  United  States.  This  grand  and  elegant  struct- 
ure is  situate   on  Washington  Avenue  and   Fifth  Street.     It  is 

[181] 


182  TOUR    or    ST.    LOUIS. 

five  stories  high,  with  fronts  in  iron  ;  Italian  style  of  architect- 
ure, and  bearing  even  with  massive  strength  a  light  and  grace- 
ful appearance,  Avhich  arises  from  the  single  sheets  of  plate 
glass  that  form  the  windows,  and  which  cost  thirty  thousand 
dollars  in  gold  in  Paris.  The  erection  of  the  building  was 
commenced  in  August,  1871,  and  it  was  occupied  in  March, 
1873.  This  line  specimen  of  architectural  strength  and  beauty 
has  a  frontal  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  on  Fifth  Street 
by  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  on  Washington  Avenue, 
and  contains,  including  the  basement,  six  floors.  In  the  rear 
of  this  immense  building  there  is  a  broad,  well-paved  area  left 
open  to  insure  a  sufficient  light,  as  well  as  to  facilitate  the 
reception  and  delivery  of  the  enormous  quantities  of  goods 
which  are  daily  handled  by  the  firm. 

Passing  from  the  imposing  exterior  to  the  interior,  the 
promise  from  without  is  more  than  fulfilled  in  the  wide  view 
and  perfection  of  detail  that  meets  the  eye.  Running  through 
from  front  to  rear,  at  a  distance  of  about  twenty-five  feet  apart, 
are  rows  of  iron  columns  with  Corinthian  capitals,  supporting 
the  floors  above.  Light  is  amply  provided  for,  being  admitted 
from  three  sides — on  the  east  and  south  the  windows  being 
only  separated  from  each  other  by  the  iron  work  which  forms 
the  two  fronts.  On  tables  arranged  with  something  like  math- 
ematical precision,  are  to  be  seen  the  goods  that  belong  to  the 
departments  represented  on  this  floor.  These  are  foreign  and 
American  dress  goods,  including  silks  and  prints,  in  fact  all 
varieties  belonging  to  the  entire  dry  goods  line  of  business,  to 
an  extent  impossible  to  enumerate  here.  From  the  basement 
to  the  uppermost  floor  of  the  Ijuilding,  extend  four  separate 
elevators,  each  of  which,  unlike  the  majority  of  elevators  in 
other  business  houses,  has  automatic  doors  that  close  the  hatch- 
way or  shaft  at  every  floor  as  the  elevator  passes  through,  so 
that  safety  against  a  fall  down  the  shaft  is  assured.  These 
elevators  work  quietly  and  eflectively.  One  of  them  carries 
up  goods  in  original  packages  ;  another  carries  goods  upon 
trucks  to  be  distributed  on  the  various  floors  ;  a  third  conveys 
goods  down  that  are  prepared  for  shipment,  and  the  fourth  is 
used  only  for  passengers.     Everything  proceeds  without  the 


DRY    GOODS    BUSINESS.  183 

slightest  irregularity  or  confusion,  and  the  work  of  many 
hands  goes  on  day  by  day  silently  yet  systematically. 

It  is  a  marvel  to  witness  the  amount  of  merchandise  taken 
in  and  out  by  way  of  the  basement  of  this  commodious  build- 
ing in  one  day.  The  engine,  another  adjunct  worthy  of  special 
notice,  is  situated  in  a  cosy  room  in  a  corner  of  the  basement,, 
is  of  forty-horse  power  and  does  its  work  quietly  and  welL 
It  is  an  elaborate  and  beautiful  piece  of  machinery,  similar  to 
the  one  which  carried  away  the  premium  at  Philadelphia  during 
the  great  Centennial  exhibition.  The  basement  is  made  to 
extend  under  the  sidewalk  of' the  streets,  and  is  fully  lighted 
through  the  thick  glass  set  in  iron-work  overhead.  It  is  also 
provided  with  fire-proof  vaults,  in  which  the  old  books  and 
accounts  of  the  firm  are  preserved.  The  preparations  made 
by  this  firm  for  the  extinguishment  of  fires  are  as  extensive  as 
they  are  ingenious.  Each  floor  is  provided  with  fifty  feet  of 
best  rubber  hose  and  nozzles,  the  same  in  size  as  that  used  by 
the  city  ;  the  power  to  force  the  water  being  furnished  by  a  fire 
pump  in  the  engine  room  of  greater  capacity  than  any  of  the 
city  fire  engines.  In  case,  however,  the  fire  should  originate 
at  a  time  when  there  was  no  steam  in  the  boilers,  connection 
is  provided  on  the  outside,  to  which  any  of  the  city  engines 
may  join  their  hose  and  throw  water  through  the  hose  belong- 
ing to  the  firm  upon  any  floor  or  into  any  apartment  of  the 
buildino;. 

It  is  impossible,  in  a  comparatively  brief  notice,  to  furnish 
anything  like  a  full  or  even  fair  description  of  the  contents  of 
the  various  floors  of  this  immense  establishment.  Mention  in 
general  terms  can  only  be  made.  The  sixth  floor  comprises 
the  large  apartment  where  all  the  packing  is  done.  All  goods 
sold  come  up  to  this  room,  and  are  so  arranged  in  separate 
parcels,  invoiced,  labeled,  packed  and  weighed,  that  mistakes 
of  any  kind  are  of  rare  occurrence.  The  fifth  floor  comprises 
the  "  notion  room"  of  the  house,  and  a  view  of  it  can  not  fail 
to  be  of  lively  interest  to  the  beholder.  Well  nigh  an  acre  of 
tables  is  presented,  covered  with  all  manner  of  fancy  and  use- 
ful articles,  embracing  jewelry,  rubber  goods,  perfumeries,  wil- 
low-ware, stationers'  articles,  besides  a  thousand  other  things 
in  the  "notion"  line,  sesthetically  grouped  and  systematically 


184  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

classified  and  assorted,  so  as  to  require  the  least  time  in  mak- 
ino-  selections.  The  fourth  tloor  is  stocked  with  furnishing 
goods,  hosiery,  linens,  gloves,  etc.  The  third  floor  is  devoted 
to  ladies'  dress  goods,  silks,  cassimeres,  cottonades  and 
cloths  of  every  description  in  astonishing  quantities,  show- 
incr  the  tremendous  stock  which  this  firm  carries  in  order  to 
supply  the  demands  of  their  patrons.  It  must  be  admitted 
that  no  ordinary  degree  of  ability,  experience  and  promptness 
of  action  is  requisite  in  the  head  of  the  house  to  so  handle  this 
vast  quantity  and  variety  of  goods  as  to  secure  a  profit  out 
of  the  business.  The  dry  goods  market  is  subject  to  great 
fluctuation,  and  the  danger  of  carrying  any  considerable  stock 

of  such  o-oods  over  from   one  season  to  another  is  far  more 

c 

imminent  than  the  uninitiated  suppose. 

It  is  now  verging  on  half  a  century  since  Samuel  C.  Davis, 
the  senior  partner  of  this  firm,  first  came  to  St.  Louis  from 
Brookline,  Mass.,  and  entered  into  the  business  of  that  day  in 
a  little  store  at  Market  and  Commercial  streets,  then  the  busi- 
ness center.  His  partner  was  J.  R.  Stanford.  Their  trade, 
like  all  other  trade  of  the  day,  was  barter  as  well  as  sale  ;  but 
it  was  profitable  nevertheless,  and,  what  is  of  more  conse- 
quence, it  grew  steadily  with  the  city.  As  the  first  stocks 
comprised  each  department  of  trade,  so,  too,  as  the  business 
increased,  a  large  jobbing  trade  was  conducted  by  the  same 
house  in  dry  goods,  boots  and  shoes  and  in  grocei'ies. 

Changes  in  the  firm  from  time  to  time  occasionally  occurred, 
but  the  controlling  interest  always  remained  with  Mr.  Davis, 
and  his  active  and  sagacious  mind  directed  the  operations  of 
the  business.  Mr.  Stanford  retired  after  a  short  time,  and 
John  Tilden  and  Eben  Eichards  became  partners.  The  great 
fire  of  1849,  the  most  sweeping  conflagration  that  has  ever 
visited  St.  Louis,  just  stopped  short  of  their  house  in  its  de- 
structive course.  In  1857  the  business  was  removed  to  Nos. 
8  and  10  North  Main  Street,  where  it  remained  many  years, 
and  where  it  assumed  proportions  that  made  it  the  pride  of  the 
city.  In  1867  both  Mr.  Tilden  and  INIr.  Richards  retired,  and 
the pei'sonnel  of  the  firm  became  that  which  at  present  exists, 
viz :  Mr.  Samuel  C.  Davis,  Mr.  Andrew  AV.  Sproule  and  Mr. 
John  T.  Davis.     The  departments  devoted  to  boots  and  shoes 


DRY    GOODS    BUSINESS.  185 

and  to  groceries  increased  Avith  the  general  business  and  soon 
demanded  separate  houses  for  themselves,  and  thej  were  ac- 
cordingly removed  to  No.  12  North  Main  Street.  It  was, 
however,  found  that  the  dei^artments  outside  of  the  dry  goods 
detracted  from  the  concentration  and  order  of  manajjement 
that  Mr.  Davis  had  always  regarded  as  so  desirable.  Thr 
grocery  department  was,  therefore,  sold  in  1872,  and  the  boot 
and  shoe  department  in  1873.  In  March  of  the  latter  3^ear,  as 
already  stated,  the  magnificent  building  now  occupied  was 
first  opened  for  business,  and  each  year  since  has  shown  an 
enormous  increase  in  sales.  The  number  of  employees  is  now 
about  ninety  in  the  house,  besides  those  whose  duties  are  out- 
side . 

The  management  that  has  carried  forward  so  successfully 
this  grand  auxiliary  of  this  city's  growth  and  wealth  is  no  less 
entitled  to  commendation  than  the  facilities  which  they  have 
provided  for  concentrating  trade  in  St.  Louis.  Their  trade 
extends  all  over  the  Western  States  and  Territories,  and  grows 
rapidly  and  surely  with  each  new  opening  of  communication. 
It  stretches  into  Nevada,  Montana,  Utah,  Indian  Territory 
and  New  Mexico,  as  well  as  throughout  Missouri,  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  Iowa,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Ar- 
kansas, Louisiana  and  Texas.  This  most  enterprising  house 
is  pushing  the  trade  of  St.  Loiiis  with  a  healthy  and  vigorous 
energy  and  a  success  that  is  fully  evidenced  by  the  present 
conspicuous  and  influential  commercial  position  it  occupies. 


J>«)I)1),   BROWN   &   CO. 


DRY    GOODS    BUSINESS.  187 

DODD,  BROWN  &  CO.,— Wholesale  Dry  Goods. 

St.  Louis,  favorably  situated  as  she  is  in  the  great  l)asiu 
of  prolific  resources,  is  nevertheless  largely  dependent  upon 
her  wholesale  jobbing  interests,  particularl}'  that  of  dry  goods, 
which  has  been  one  of  the  prime  factors  in  our  improvement, 
with  an  influence  of  growing  importance  and  centralizing 
power.  The  history  of  our  great  dry  goods  jobbing  houses, 
like  that  of  Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.,  is  therefore  an  inseparable 
part  of  the  biography  of  individualized  St.  Louis,  and  is  no 
less  interesting  as  an  article  than  it  is  valuable  as  a  historical 
record. 

In  January  of  1866,  Samuel  M.  Dodd  and  James  G. 
Brown  associated  themselves,  under  the  firm  name  of  Dodd, 
Brown  &  Co.,  in  the  wholesale  dry  goods  business.  They 
located  on  the  corner  of  Main  and  Locust  streets,  in  a  four- 
story  building,  twenty-five  feet  wide  by  one  hundred  and 
twenty  long,  and  well  filled  with  what  was  then  considered  an 
immense  stock.  Their  sales  the  first  year  aggregated  one 
million  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  giving  them, 
almost  at  once,  a  front  rank  in  the  trade.  The  firm  continued 
business  at  the  original  store  until  1869,  when  they  were  com- 
pelled to  secure  a  larger  building  to  accommodate  their  largely 
increased  trade.  They  accordingly  removed  to  No.  217  North 
Main  Street,  where  they  remained  until  their  business  outgrew 
the  capacity  of  the  building  and  forced  them  a  second  time 
into  more  capacious  quarters.  At  this  time  the  bridge  was  in 
process  of  construction,  and  the  foresight  of  the  firm  pictured 
W^ashington  Avenue,  and  Fifth  Street  in  the  vicinity,  the  great 
business  thoroughfare  and  central  mart  for  the  city's  jobbing 
trade.  When  Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.  announced  their  intention 
of  havinsr  an  immense  buildinor  erected  on  the  corner  of  Fifth 
and  St.  Charles  streets,  into  which  they  proposed  to  move 
their  business,  it  was  thought  by  many  to  be  too  radical  a 
change.  But  the  plans  of  the  firm  were  carried  out,  their 
removal  into  the  new  building  being  made  in  the  year  1871. 
This  maornificent  edifice  is  five  stories  in  height,  with  an 
immense  basement,  well  finished,  the  area  of  the  entire  build- 
ing covering  about   sixty  thousand  square  feet.     Their  move 


188  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

proving  successful,  they  were  directly  afterwards  followed  by 
every  wholesale  dry  goods  house  on  Main  Street.  The  advan- 
tages of  their  removal  were  twofold,  and  can  now  be  well 
appreciated.  Main  Street  was  too  narrow  and  dark  to  permit 
of  the  rapid  handling  or  favorable  inspection  of  goods — two 
drawbacks  which  operated  seriously  against  the  trade,  and 
reflected  correspondingly  upon  the  general  trade  of  the  city. 
How  well  their  judgment  has  been  verified  is  attested  by  the 
enormous  increase  of  the  dry  goods  jobbing  business  in  St. 
Louis,  and  that  of  Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.  in  particular.  An 
imperfect  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  their  trade  may  be  gained 
by  a  knowledge  of  the  following  facts  :  Their  sales,  as  before 
mentioned,  aggregated  a  million  and  a  quarter  the  first  year 
they  were  established,  but  these  sales  were  made  at  prices 
nearly  three  hundred  per  cent,  above  the  prices  asked  for  the 
same  goods  now,  making  one  dollar  now  the  equivalent  of  the 
purchasing  power  of  three  dollars  then.  Last  year  their 
sales  amounted  to  five  million  dollars,  and  their  trade  this 
spring  is  fully  twenty-five  per  cent,  larger  than  ever  before, 
consequently  they  must  handle  twenty  times  the  goods  now 
that  they  did  in  the  year  1866.  Such  an  enormous  business 
gives  the  firm  a  great  leverage  of  advantage  over  competition, 
as  it  permits  them  to  sell  goods  at  closer  margins  and  yet 
secures  for  them  a  satisfactory  aggregate  of  profits.  . 

The  building  is  provided  with  all  the  auxiliaries  necessary 
to  facilitate  the  business,  having  three  large  elevators,  two  of 
which  handle  freight  and  the  other  is  used  for  passengers. 
Throughout  the  entire  year  five  or  six  regular  buyers  for  the 
house  are  in  the  Eastern  and  foreign  markets  securing  addi- 
tions and  supplying  deficiencies  in  the  stock,  and  at  the  store 
there  is  one  almost  constant  stream  of  goods  arriving  and 
going  out.  The  commercial  fingers  of  this  great  house  hold 
in  their  grasp  a  trade  which  extends  from  the  Gulf  to  the 
British  Possessions,  and  from  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Tennessee 
and  Alabama,  to  the  Pacific — a  wide  domain,  but  in  which  the 
ramifications  of  Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.'s  business  are  seen  in 
almost  every  town  of  any  importance.  To  attend  properly 
to  such  a  trade  requires  -a  system  of  the  most  complete 
thoroughness,  and  a  knowleds^e  of  business  both  natural  and 


DRY    GOODS    BUSINESS.  189 

polished  by  a  long  course  of  education.  Every  department 
must  be  separate,  superintended  by  a  competent  head,  and 
yet  the  whole  must  be  under  an  organization  which  blends  the 
entire  business  as  perfectly  as  the  prismatic  tints  of  the 
rainbow.  This  perfect  system  is  not  only  profitable  to  the 
firm,  but  gives  advantage  to  their  customers.  Dodd,  Brown 
&  Co.  is  one  of  the  leading  representatives  of  St.  Louis 
interests,  and  their  name  has  become  co-extensive  with  the 
country  as  a  house  of  immense  capital,  superior  stock,  admi- 
rable foresight  and  judgment,  and  indomitable  pluck  and 
enterprise . 


J.  H.  WEAR,  BOOGHER  &  CO.— Dry  Goods. 

The  dry  goods  trade,  which  is  invariably  the  great  interest 
by  which  the  importance  and  prospects  of  a  city  are  measured, 
has  few  better  representatives  of  its  wealth  commanding  power 
in  the  West  than  the  firm  of  J.  H.  Wear,  Boogher  &  Co., 
now  recognized  as  one  of  the  best  wholesale  houses  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  While  wealth  is  one  of  the  elements  of 
success,  it  is  a  resultless  ingredient  without  the  combination 
of  business  sagacity,  which  acts  as  a  governor  in  the  regula- 
tion of  the  force  which  capital  impels.  In  the  history  of  the 
rise,  progress  and  development  of  this  great  dry  goods  house 
we  find  an  illustration  of  the  part  which  ability  plays  in  the 
stages  of  prosperity,  and  the  subordination  of  capital  to 
adaptability  and  enterprise. 

J.  H.  Wear  embarked  in  the  wholesale  fancy  dry  goods 
business  with  a  small  stock  in  the  year  18G3,  associating  with 
him  Jno.  W.  Hickman,  under  the  firm  name  of  Wear  &  Hick- 
man. Their  oriirinal  location  was  on  the  corner  of  Main  and 
Chestnut  streets,  where  they  remained  until  1865,  when  they 
removed  to  a  more  convenient  building  at  No.  319  North  Main. 
Here  the  firm  did  a  prosperous  business  under  the  stimuhition 
of  the  excitement  consequent  upon  the  close  of  the  war,  when 


J.  H.  WEAR,  BOOGHER  &  CO. 


DRY  GOODS  "Business.  191 

high  prices  and  general  extravagance  were  the  chief  character- 
istics of  our  people. 

In  the  year  1867  Mr.  Hickman  disposed  of  his  interest  in 
the  house  and  the  firm  name  was  changed  to  J.  H.  Wear  & 
Co.  Under  this  title  the  business  flourished  and  gained  a 
reputation  most  envial)l  •  throughout  the  AVestern  States. 
Mr.  Wear,  although  a  young  man  at  the  date  of  entering 
business  for  himself,  nevertheless  pursued  a  policy  creditable 
to  a  much  older  and  more  experienced  tradesman,  and  at  once 
took  rank  with  the  most  substantial  jobbers  in  the  city.  He 
was  distinguished  for  his  polished  courtesy  and  adherence  to 
strictly  honest  principles,  which  popularized  him  with  the 
Western  people,  who  of  all  others  most  admire  an  accommo- 
dating and  upright  disposition. 

Finding   his    quarters   too   circumscribed  for   the  proper 
transaction  of  his  rapidly  increasing  business,  in  the  spring  of 
1871  Mr.  Wear  removed  to  No.   508  North  Main  Street,  a 
much  larger  building,  where    his   trade  continued  its  steady 
and  satisfactory  growth.     But   realizing   that   the  wholesale 
trade  was  quitting  the  narrow  avenue  which  gave  it  birth  and 
nourishment  for  nearly  half  a  century,  Mr.  Wear  reluctantly 
submitted  to  the  inevitable,  and  concluded  to  aid  in  the  cen- 
tralization of  the  business  which  was  surely  threading  its  way 
towards  Fifth  Street  and  Washington  Avenue.     Accordingly, 
J.  H.  Wear  &  Co.  shifted  their  base  of  operations  and  leased 
the  magnific'ent    structure,  then    recently  completed,   on  the 
corner  of  Fifth  and    Washington    Avenue,  into    which   they 
removed  on  the  1st  of  January,   1875.     This  building  is  not 
only  one  of  the  largest  and  most  ornate  in  the  city,  but  its 
arrangement  for  the  dry  goods  business  is  perfect.     It  is  six 
stories  in   height,  with  immense  plate-glass   windows,  which 
flood  every  floor  with  an  abundance  of  light,  giving  the  best 
possible  advantages  for  a  fine  display  and  careful  inspection  of 
the  stock.     It  has  entrances  on  the  two  great  business  thor- 
oujjhfares  of  the  citv,  with  a   rear   "entrance  from  the  allcv, 
where  all  the  receipts  and  shipments  are  handled.     There  are 
two  steam  elevators  in  the  building  for  conveying  customers 
and  goods  from  floor  to  floor  ;  and,  in  fact,  every  convenience 
is  provided  to  facilitate  the  business  of  the  concern. 


192  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

On  the  1st  of  January  of  the  present  year  (1878)  Jesse  L. 
and  John  P.  Boogher  were  admitted  as  partners,  and  the  firm 
name  Avas  again  changed  to  J.  H.  Wear,  Boogher  &  Co.  The 
Boogher  brothers  were  for  many  years  members  of  the  firm  of 
Henry  Bell  &  Son,  and  were  of  the  house  of  Daniel  W.  Bell, 
late  successor  of  Henry  Bell  &  Son,  up  to  the  date  of  Mr. 
Bell's  death.  They  are  gentlemen  of  large  experience,  and 
bring  with  them  a  large  acquaintance  and  valuable  prestige  to 
the  new  firm.  The  house  has  one  of  the  best  corps  of  salesmen 
to  be  found  an^^where  in  the  West,  and  there  is  every  guar- 
antee to  customers  that  in  all  their  transactions  with  J.  H. 
Wear,  Boogher  &  Co.  they  will  be  treated  with  a  considera- 
tion most  satisfactory. 

The  firm  has  recently  added  a  full  line  of  staple  domestic 
goods  to  the  general  stock  of  fancy  dry  goods,  formerly  carried 
by  J.  H.  Wear  &  Co.,  which  is  securing  for  the  house  a  large 
additional  trade  and  Avill  result  in  an  immense  increase  of  sales. 
Their  business  this  spring  has  already  reached  an  increase  of 
fifty  per  cent,  over  the  transactions  of  any  previous  period, 
and  in  every  sense  the  firm  is  in  as  prosperous  condition  as 
any  wholesale  house  in  the  West.  Their  goods  are  now  sold 
throughout  the  entire  section  west  of  the  MississijDpi  River ; 
also  Illinois  and  Indiana  on  the  east.  The  firm  is  constantly 
extending  its  commercial  grasp  upon  new  acquisitions  in  the 
States  and  Territories  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains. 


WM.  BARR  &  CO.— Retail  Dry  Goods. 

In  writing  the  history  of  our  great  institutions  it  is 
generally  by  comparison  ;  but  occasionally  there  is  found  a 
branch  of  business,  so  far  in  advance  of  its  particular  trade,  that 
no  comparison  is  possible,  save  to  make  it  the  standard,  and 
speak  relatively  of  the  others ;  such  is  the  position  Wm. 
Barr  &  Co.  occupy  in  St.  Louis.  This  famous  retail  dry 
goods  house  was  first  established  in  the  year  1849,  on  the 
comer  of  Third  and  Market  streets,  the  then  business  portion 


WILLIAM  BARR  &  CO. 


13 


194  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

of  the  city.  The  store,  however,  remained  there  only  a  few 
months,  when  a  more  desirable  building  was  found  on  the 
corner  of  Fourth  and  Olive  streets,  into  which  they  moved  and 
remained  there  until  1857,  the  year  of  the  great  panic.  The 
business  center  of  a  great  city  is  constantly  shifting,  and  it  is 
only  the  most  penetrating  foresight  that  can  fix  its  future 
locations  ;  but,  fortunately  for  Wm.  Barr  &  Co.,  their  predic- 
tions that  business  would  move  northward  on  Fourth  Street, 
have  been  verified,  and  have  resulted  in  the  enormous  trade 
they  now  have.  When  they  moved  into  the  building  they  now 
occupy  it  was  at  a  time  when  everything  was  unsettled,  and 
hundreds  prophesied  a  failure  ;  nevertheless,  the  firm  depended 
exclusively  on  their  own  judgment,  and  fitted  up  the  first  floor 
for  their  business. 

It  is  difiicult,  now,  to  imagine  Wm.  Barr  &  Co.  doing 
business  on  a  single  floor  of  their  present  house,  minus  the 
Third  Street  addition  ;  but  such  was  the  modest  pretensions 
of  their  business  until  about  1859,  when  additions  became 
necessary,  and  have  been  continued,  until  now  the  house  covers 
an  entire  block,  being  bounded  by  Third,  Fourth,  Vine  and 
St.  Charles  streets,  and  is  four  stories  in  height  in  front 
and  .five  stories  in  the  rear.  Large  as  this  building  is,  it  is 
insufficient  for  the  proper  accommodation  of  their  business, 
and  another  important  change  will  soon  be  imperative. 

Wm.  Barr  &  Co.  have  the  most  admirable  system  controlling 
their  immense  interest  ever  devised ;  so  complete  indeed  that 
it  is  as  though  held  in  a  single  hand.  They  now^  have  on  their 
pay-roll  over  three  hundred  employees,  and  retail  two  million 
dollars  of  goods  annually,  with  a  much  larger  trade  now  than 
ever  before.  Yet,  everything  moves  as  perfectly  as  a  simple 
engine ;  and  the  thousands  of  customers  which  swarm  the 
store,  as  well  also  as  the  hundreds  of  orders  for  goods  by 
mail,  are  attended  to  promptl}'^  and  satisfactorily.  Everything 
about  the  store  is  system  and  prosperity.  To  designate  the 
iirticles  in  which  the  firm  deals,  would  be  to  mention  the  entire 
categor}^  of  manufactured  dry  goods  and  notions,  millinery, 
shoes,  dress  goods,  upholstery,,  etc.,  ad  infinitum.  Their 
store  stands  unrivaled  by  any  west  of  New  York,  and  its 
possibilities  can  not  be  approximated. 


DRY    GOODS    BUSINESS. 


195 


D.  CRAWFORD  &  CO.— Retail  Drt  Goods. 

The  success  of  our  business  interests  is  the  true  measure  of 
our  prosperity,  and  the  development  of  our  industries  forms 
the  index  and  prophetic  vision  of  our  ultimate  attainments. 
The  histor}'-  of  many  of  the  leading  commercial  houses  of  St. 
Louis  reads  almost  like  a  legend  in  which  the  subject  has  been 
christened  by  some  magical  officiary.  For  is  it  not  a  fact  that 
hundi'eds  of  capitalists  have  been  swept  out  of  sight  by  the 


flood  of  bankruptcy  whilst  their  next  door  neighbors  Iimvc 
prospered  and  been  guided  at  all  times  by  fortune,  who  nc\  or 
tired  of  showering  gifts  upon  them?  One  of  the  most  notable 
illustrations  of  this  fact  is  found  in  the  following  pertinent  his- 
torical sketch  of  the  great  dry  goods  establishment  of  D. 
Crawford  &  Co. 

Immediately  after  the  ciose  of  the  war,  in  1866,  1).  Craw- 
ford and  A.  Russell  formed  a  co-partnership  under  the  linn 


196  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

name  of  D.  Crawford  &  Co.,  and  entered  the  dry  goods  busi- 
ness at  No.  418  Franklin  Avenue,  with  a  cash  capital  of  two 
thousand  three  hundred  dollars.  At  this  date  Franklin  Avenue 
was  only  a  residence  street,  and  so  far  distant  from  the  com- 
mercial outskirts  of  the  city,  that  the  attempt  to  build  up  a 
business  on  any  part  of  that  now  bustling  thoroughfare  was 
regarded  as  absurd,  and,  indeed,  ridiculous.  Foresight  is  the 
most  valuable  characteristic  of  a  business  man's  ability,  and  to 
possess  it  is  to  hold  the  key  which  unlocks  the  secret  doors  to 
success.  But  while  foresight  is  the  most  potent  adjunct  in  the 
administration  of  trade,  it  should  always  be  in  accord  and 
combination  with  the  sagacity  and  adaptability  which  attracts 
patronage  and  skillfully  handles  every  interest  advantageously. 
That  D.  Crawford  &  Co.  represent  a  unity  of  these  most 
favorable  elements  is  abundantly  demonstrated  by  their  career. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  in  detail  the  several  im- 
portant changes  the  firm  have  made  in  their  establishment 
since  the  day  they  displayed  their  first  stock  of  goods  in  the 
the  small,  narrow  quarters,  in  the  dingy  side  street,  as  it  were, 
at  No.  418  Franklin  Avenue.  It  is  sufllcient,  perhaps,  to  say 
that  they  have  made  no  less  than  six  large  additions  to  their 
original  house,  and  have  at  length  built  up  one  of  the  greatest 
dry  goods  establishments  in  America. 

But  this  information  does  not  convey  an  adequate  idea  of 
the  extensions  made  and  the  magnitude  of  the  firm.  The  last 
and  most  important  addition  to  the  house  was  completed  in 
the  later  part  of  ^lay  of  the  present  year  (1878)  which  is  a 
building  in  itself,  and  one  of  the  grandest  and  most  ornate  in 
the  city,  being  three  stories  in  height,  with  ceilings  fifteen  feet 
in  the  clear,  and  of  the  most  elaborate  architecture.  It  was 
constructed  after  a  design  and  under  the  superintendence  of 
J.  B.  Legg,  one  of  the  finest  architects  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
\ey,  who  expended  much  of  his  ability  and  ingenuity  to  make 
of  it  one  of  the  best  adapted  buildings  for  the  dry  goods  busi- 
ness that  was  ever  built.  R.  F.  Park,  the  contractor,  has  per- 
formed his  part  of  the  work  equally  well,  and  the  idea  of  every 
one  concerned  in  the  perfection  of  its  details  has  been 
realized. 

The  great  dry   goods   house  of  D.  Crawford   &  Co.    now 


DRY    GOODS    BUSINESS.  197 

occupies  one-quarter  of  a  l)lo('k,  liaviug  a  frontage  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  on  Fifth  Street,  and  one  hundred 
and  ten  feet  on  Franklin  Avenue.  It  is  ornamented  and  lisrhted 
by  twelve  magnificent  show  windows,  each  of  which  is  ten 
feet  wide  by  thirteen  feet  in  height,  fitted  with  solid  plate- 
glass,  each  glass  weighing  nine  hundred  and  ten  pounds,  the 
largest  west  of  New  York.  In  addition  to  these  immense  show 
windows  there  are  five  sky-lights,  one  of  which  is  sixteen  feet 
wide  and  thirty  feet  long,  and  the  others  sixteen  feet  wide  by 
twenty  feet  in  length,  through  which  the  flood  of  a  mellowed 
sunlight  streams  constantly  upon  every  department  of  the  store, 
giving  customers  an  advantage  for  inspecting  goods  possessed 
by  no  other  house  in  the  city.  A  handsome  passenger  elevator 
of  the  Otis  patent  has  also  been  put  in  to  convey  patrons  to 
the  upper  floors  where  the  millinery  stock  is  displayed. 

F'rom  an  original  stock,  purchased  at  a  time,  too,  when  prices 
were  three  times  higher  than  they  are  now,  and  an  investment 
of  two  thousand  three  hundred  dollars,  D.  Crawford  &  Co. 
have  increased  their  business  until  now  they  carry  a  stock  in- 
voicing one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  and 
their  annual  sales  reach  the  enormous  sum  of  one  million  dol- 
lars. Everything  about  this  truly  immense  institution  reflects 
the  most  admirable  system.  The  business  of  the  house  is  done 
on  the  division  of  labor  principle,  there  being  twenty-six  dis- 
tinct departments  in  the  store,  and  at  the  head  of  each  there  is 
a  separate  buyer  and  the  acounts.of  each  are  also  kept  distinct, 
so  that  the  several  departments  are  actually  so  many  different 
stores,  the  whole  deriving  its  powers  from  an  administration 
represented  by  Messrs.  Crawford  &  Russell,  the  former  direct- 
ing the  sole  management  of  the  house  and  the  latter  superin- 
tending all  the  purchases. 

The  total  number  of  employees  of  the  firm  is  one  hundred 
and  fifty,  and  yet,  numerous  as  they  are,  their  capacity  is 
severely  taxed  to  attend  to  the  wants  of  the  great  rush  of  pat- 
rons which  continually  swarm  the  store.  Five  men  are  em- 
jjloyed  whose  sole  duties  consist  in  arranging  the  display  of 
new  goods  in  the  magnificent  show  windows  ;  two  others  are 
employed  to  write  show  card  prices,  and  recently  a  printing 


198  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

department  has  been  added  in  which  two  expert  printers  are 
employed  striking  ofl' checks,  bill-heads,  dodgers,  etc. 

One  of  the  great  features  of  D.  Crawford  <fe  Co.,  and  one 
which  gives  them  both  precedence  and  preference,  is  their  ad- 
mirable system  of  buying.  They  spend  more  money  than  any 
other  house  in  the  West  in  looking  up  bargains,  having  at  all 
times  a  large  corps  of  expert  buyers  in  both  the  home  and 
foreign  markets,  watching  for  favorable  opportunities  to  take 
stocks  of  any  size  from  live  thousand  to  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
.for  which  spot  cash  is  always  paid.  By  this  means  purchases 
are  effected  on  terms  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  by  the  ordinary 
way,  and  in  consequence  D.  Cmwford  &  Co.,  can  invariably 
sell  goods  of  equal  quality  far  below  the  prices  asked  at  com- 
peting houses. 

In  the  construction  of  their  new  addition,  already  referred 
to,  the  entire  building  was  supplied  with  the  mercurial  alarm, 
by  which  the  earliest  indication  of  fire  is  communicated  at 
once  to  the  Salvage  Corps.  The  house  has  connection,  also, 
with  the  American  District  Telegraph  Company's  office,  and 
the  watchman  is  thereby  kept  constantly  on  the  alert,  being 
required  to  communicate  with  the  office  every  half  hour  through- 
out the  night. 

D.  Crawford  &  Co.  are  not  only  among  the  largest  retail 
dry  goods  dealers  in  the  United  States,  but  are  equally  heavy 
dealers  in  millinery,  ladies'  ready-made  suits,  underwear,  hats 
and  caps,  notions,  etc.,  and  in  the  coming  fall  (we  write  in 
June,  1878,)  the  firm  will  add  to  their  business  the  largest 
stock  of  boots  and  shoes  ever  brought  to  this  market,  and  will 
accomplish  a  revolution  in  that  branch  of  trade  as  they  have 
in  dry  goods.  The  increase  of  their  business  is  beyond  prece- 
dent and  incomparatively  greater  than  that  of  any  establish- 
ment in  the  West.  Throughout  the  most  stringent  times  of 
the  past  decade  their  trade  has  been  constantly  enlarging,  and 
the  year  1878  will  evidence  an  increase  of  fully  thirty-three 
and  one-third  per  cent,  above  their  business  of  any  previous 
year.  The  reason  of  this  is  found  in  the  facts  above  narrated  ; 
they  are  specially  adapted  to  the  business,  and  by  a  proper  utili- 
zation of  means  at  their  command  they  are  enabled  to  undersell 
all  competition.     D.  Crawford  &  Co.  are  entitled  to  the  credit 


DEY    GOODS    BUSINESS.  199 

of  having  made  Franklin  Avenue  the  great  retail  trade  thor- 
oughfare of  the  city,  and  of  liaving  built  up  the  hirgest  busi- 
ness on  the  smallest  capital  and  in  the  shortest  time  of  any 
dry  goods  house  in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Crawford  writes 
all  his  own  advertisements,  and  his  accomplishment  in  this 
direction  is  really  marvellous,  for  his  invitations  to  the  public 
are  so  ingeniously  and  skillfully  Avorded  that  they  are  as  inter- 
esting reading  matter  as  a  beautiful  story.  By  a  S3^stem  of 
almost  unlimited  advertising,  and  offerino^  bari>:ains  that  can 
be  obtained  at  no  other  house,  the  firm  name  of  D.  Crawford 
&  Co.  has  became  as  familiar  throughout  the  entire  West  as 
though  it  were  an  administration  in  itself,  and  thousands  of 
orders  are  constantly  pouring  in  from  every  State  and  town 
within  a  radius  of  five  hundred  miles,  making  the  house  a 
focal  point  for  the  retail  dry  goods  and  millinery  trade  of  an 
immense  tributary  territory.  This  firm  has  done  an  inestima- 
ble amount  of  good  to  the  city  at  large,  by  developing  a  trade 
that  has  not  only  made  D.  Crawford  &  Co.  the  most  popular 
house  in  the  West,  but  has  reflected  a  corresponding  honor 
upon  St.  Louis,  and  brought  many  thousands  of  people  here, 
who  would  undoubtedly  have  gone  to  other  cities  for  their 
purchases  had  not  D.  Crawford  &  Co.  offered  facilities  and 
prices  below  the  possibilities  of  all  other  houses. 


200  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS 

H.  D.  MANN  &  CO.— Retail  Dry  Goods. 

St.  Louis  is  one  of  the  great  dry  goods  centers  of  America, 
and  claims  justly  the  largest  number  of  strictly  first-class  dry 
(roods  houses — barring  New  York — of  any  city  in  America. 
Among  this  preferred  list  stands,  in  most  conspicuous  position, 
the  popular  firm  of  H.  D.  Mann  &  Co.  This  house  was  or- 
ganized in  the  early  part  of  1871,  establishing  busmess  at  No. 
421  North  Fourth  Street.  Its  members  had  previously  been 
connected  with  one  of  the  largest  and  most  successful  retail 
business  of  one  of  the  largest  Eastern  cities.  They  adopted 
the  same  principles  in  their  business  here  as  there,  viz  :  to  sell 
only  goods  of  merit  and  give  all  patrons  the  best  possible  value 
for  their  money,  AA^hether  a  spool  of  thread  or  an  expensive 
silk  dress.  This  is  strictly  adhered  to  now,  and  in  a  measure 
accounts  for  their  rapid  and  unusual  success.  The  firm  started 
as  dealers  in  dry  goods  exclusively,  in  which  line  they  opened 
one  of  the  finest  assortments  of  articles  of  this  special  trade 
ever  seen  in  St.  Louis. 

Early  in  1875  the  firm  leased  the  large  building,  Nos.  417 
and  419  North  Fourth  Street,  Avhich  was  remodeled  and  ar- 
ranged for  the  dry  goods  business,  into  Avhich  they  removed 
Avith  a  larger  stock  than  thcA'  had  ever  before  carried.  The 
ncAV  store-room  is  the  most  perfectly  lighted  of  an}"  in  the 
city,  and  all  the  business  is  concentrated  upon  a  single  floor, 
thus  providing  against  the  labor  of  climbing  stairs  and  the  use 
of  uncomfortable  elevators. 

The  house  of  H.  D.  Mann  &  Co.  make  a  specialty  of 
dry  goods  only,  and  in  that  respect  differ  from  any  other  St. 
Louis  firm,  and  in  their  immense  stock  Avill  be  found  new  and 
original  patterns  not  kept  by  any  other  house  in  the  city.  In 
their  order  department  Avill  be  found  orders  for  goods  from 
every  State  in  the  South,  west  of  Alabama,  and  from  all  the 
Western  States.  The  aggregate  of  their  annual  sales  is  very 
large  and  constantly  increasing.  EA'ery  article  in  stock  is 
marked  at  a  price  from  Avhich  no  deviation  is  made,  so  that  a 
child  can  buy  of  H.  D.  Mann  &  Co.  as  cheaply  as  a  grown 
person,  and  no  misrepresentation  as  to  price  or  quality  is  per- 
mitted by  any  one  in  their  employ. 


DOLLAR  STORE. 


201 


iiiiii.  mwm Ill    iiniiiit  imiiiiii    i  -j- 


|MVi;r.»=<-#miii.My,g--i 


ST.  BERNARD  DOLLAR  STORE. 

The  mighty  doUar  is  truly  the  ruling  influence  of  the  age, 
to  which  all  mankind  bows  in  sweet  subserviency  ;  but  it  is 
indisjjensable  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  and  the  question, 
which  is  the  key  to  domestic  economy,  is  therefore  the  means 
which  involve  the  expenditure  of  the  fewest  dollars  to  secure 
our  comfort  and  happiness.  The  time  was,  and  that  not  long 
ago,  when  a  hundred  cents  was  the  equivalent  of  our  least 
necessity  ;  but  with  the  quick- 
ening of  competition  and  manu- 
facture, prices  declined  while 
ingenuity  increased,  until  now 
a  dollar  is  the  hub  and  felloes 
of  our  comfort.  True,  it  will 
not  buy  a  palatial  mansion,  a 
coach  and  four,  nor  a  round- 
trip  ticket  and  three  months' 
leave  of  absence  to  the  Paris 
Exposition,  but  invested  in  ar- 
ticles of  prime  use  and  domestic 
importance  at  such  an  institu- 
tion as  the  St.  Bernard  Dollar 
Store,  it  will  secure  a  portion 
of  worldly  goods  that  w^ill  con- 
summate the  material  part  of  a 
long  season  of  family  comfort. 
A  visit  to  St.  Louis  is  not  com- 
plete without  a  critical  inspec- 
tion   of  the    St.    Bernard,   the 

contents  of  which  fairly  confound  the  visitor  l)y  the  profusion 
of  elegant  articles,  comprising  almost  every  conceivable  house- 
hold utensil,  ornament,  notion,  fancy  goods,  etc.,  and  the  yet 
more  surprising  price  at  which  they  are  sold.  This  represent- 
ative institution  of  a  si^ccial  feature  of  St.  Louis'  attractions 
was  founded  in  the  early  part  of  1869,  ])y  Charles  A.  and 
James  W.  Fowle,  under  the  iirm  name  of  Charles  A.  Fowlc 
&  Co.,  at  No.  406  North  Fourth  Street,  under  whose  proprie- 
torship it  continues   at  the   same  place  of  original  location. 


202  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  house,  though  a  hirge  one  even  in  its  infancy,  has  grown 
rapidly,  until  now  it  has  nearly  twice  the  trade  of  any  similar 
business  in  America,  not  even  excepting  the  Dollar  Stores  of 
New  York  City.  A  wise  policy  has  directed  its  management, 
and  the  ability  exhibited  in  the  selection  of  its  stock  has 
popularized  the  St.  Bernard,  not  only  in  St.  Louis,  but  for 
hundreds  of  miles  in  all  directions. 

It  has  always  ])een  a  grave  question  with  the  patrons  of 
the  St.  Bernard  how  the  jDroprietors  could  afford  to  sell  their 
goods  at  such  an  immense  reduction  on  the  prices  asked  for 
the  same  articles  by  other  houses  in  the  city.  Every  suc- 
cessful merchant  has  his  secrets  in  trade — we  call  them  secrets 
for  the  want  of  a  more  convenient  name,  but  they  are  more 
properly  l)usiness  tacts  and  acuteness  in  driving  bargains. 

One  of  the  great  advantages  possessed  by  this  house  is 
obtained  by  making  all  its  purchases  in  a  pool  with  several 
other  large  houses  of  like  character,  and  in  buying  and  selling 
exclusively  for  cash.  They  have  a  buyer  in  the  East  contin- 
ually securing  new  goods  at  the  most  favorable  prices,  and 
from  January  to  July,  they  have  another  buyer  in  Europe, 
who  samples  the  best  and  most  stylish  goods  of  American 
manufacture,  and  has  them  duplicated  at  much  lower  figures 
by  foreign  factories.  This  course  is  necessary,  because 
Americans  are  most  skillful  in  modeling  and  designing,  but 
in  many  articles  can  not  compete  in  prices  with  foreigners. 

Another  advantageous  feature  of  the  Dollar  Store  is  found 
in  the  absence  of  refuse  or  "hold  over"  stock.  Not  beina: 
confined  to  any  special  lines,  they  can  refuse  to  order  should 
prices  be  too  high,  until  a  decline  takes  j^lace,  consequently 
they  are  enabled  to  control  their  market.  Frequently,  too, 
manufacturers  finding  themselves  over-stocked,  and  the  season 
well  advanced,  will  sacrifice  their  surplus  stock  ;  but  they  are 
careful  not  to  estal)lish  a  precedent  b}^  cutting  prices  to  the 
regular  trade,  and  rather  look  for  an  outside  house,  like  the 
Dollar  Store,  to  whom  they  can  quietly  unload. 

A  cardinal  rule  wdth  the  proprietors  of  the  St.  Bernard  is, 
never  to  buy  an  article  they  can  not  sell  at  a  lower  figure 
than  the  same  can  be  bought  at  the  other  stores  in  the  city, 
and  to  do  this   requires   adaptabilit}^  to   the  bushiess   and  a 


MILLINERY.  203 

thorough  knowledge  of  the  trade,  ])ut  that  the  rule  is  enforced 
will  not  be  questioned  by  any  one  that  has  visited  the  estab- 
lishment.       ; 

The  St.  Bernard  Dollar  Store  comprises  one  large  retail 
sales-room  on  the  hrst  floor,  and  four  other  immense  floors, 
which  are  kept  constantly  crowded  with  goods,  from  and  to 
which  large  shipments  are  being  constantly  made.  Although 
the  greater  attention  is  paid  to  the  retail  department,  yet  the 
house  does  a,  very  large  jobbing  trade  throughout  the  AVest, 
and  the  business  is  so  great  as  to  tax  the  facility  of  their 
large  house  to  transact.  As  a  special  business,  it  is  one  of 
the  most  complete  and  comprehensive  to  be  found  in  the 
country,  and  an  inspection  of  its  stock  inspires  the  greatest 
pleasure. 


C.  E.  BLELL'S  MILLINERY  ESTABLISHMENT. 

The  dictates  of  fashion  are  most  arbitrary,  and  the  goddess, 
though  fickle  and  coy,  is  most  exacting  ;  hence  her  whims  are 
commands  which  the  aristocratic  world  has  nothing  to  do  but 
obey.  Paris,  the  city  of  pleasure  and  the  unctions  seat  of 
gayety,  has,  for  many  years,  been  the  capital  and  court  of 
Fashion,  who,  from  her  exalted  position,  sways  with  subtle 
power  and  rules  both  continents.  And  whatever  may  be  said 
by  rebellious  subjects  to  her  disparity,  it  can  not  affect  Fashion's 
dominions  or  make  her  power  less  potent.  So  long  as  eyes 
can  feed  on  lovely  sights,  so  long  will  style  con\mand  not  only 
the  greater  admiration,  but  the  more  Drofound  respect  of 
humankind. 

America  acknowledges  the  better  taste  of  Paris  in  matters 
of  dress,  and  we  are  therefore  only  the  imprints  of  her  stereo- 
types, adopting  her  suggestions  or  dressing  as  she  dictates. 
Consequently  the  most  proficient  dealer  in  such  articles  as 
millinery  in  this  country  is  that  one  who  is  most  expert  and 
particular  in  securing  the  latest  importations  of  Paris  fashions 
and  introducing  the  freshest  novelties.     Every  large  city  has 


204  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

its  popular  exponent  of  fashions  in  millinery,  and  the  one  so 
acknowledged  is,  of  course,  the  recipient  of  the  most  gracious 
favors  in  the  way  of  trade  from  the  creme  de  la  creme  of  that 
community.  To  hold  such  a  position  to  society  in  St.  Louis 
is  an  honor  which  can  not  be  readily  estimated,  and  one,  too, 
which  may  well  excite  the  envy  of  competition.  In  perj^etua- 
ting  the  history  of  our  representative  business  interests,  our 
opinions  must  l)e  influenced  by  the  popular  verdict,  which  we 
only  ho^je  to  reflect;  hence,  in  according  to  C.  E.  Blell  the 
position  as  Fashion's  exponent  of  millinery  in  St.  Louis,  we 
are  but  reducing  to  print  the  universal  acknowledgment  of 
the  critical  judges,  who  are  the  fair  ladies  of  our  city. 

Mr.  Blell  bes-un  business  as  a  fashionable  milliner  in  the 
year  18G1,  in  circumscribed  quarters  at  No.  319  North  Fourth 
Street,  where  he  has  remained  ever  since.  His  capital  was 
small,  but  owing  to  the  excitement  of  the  times  and  the  liber- 
ality of  money-holders  his  prospects  were  flattering  and  trade 
grew  apace.  All  the  profits  of  his  business  he  re-invested,  and 
with  its  increase  he  added  new  facilities  for  meeting  the  de- 
mand. Thus  Mr.  Blell  has  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  his  way, 
giving  his  entire  attention  to  the  details  of  the  business,  culti- 
vating his  naturally  fastidious  and  critical  taste,  and  educating 
himself  in  the  desires  of  the  pul)lic.  One  of  his  unalterable 
rules  is  to  never  allow  his  customers  to  be  dissatisfied  with 
their  purchases,  and  never  to  represent  an  article  other  than 
it  is.  By  the  exercise  of  such  a  wise  policy  Mr.  Blell  has  suc- 
ceeded in  building  up  the  largest  millinery  trade  in  St.  Louis, 
and  is  securing  for  himself  a  reputation  as  an  honest  dealer  and 
one  thoroughly  posted  in  the  latest  styles. 

Mr.  Blell's  salesroom  is  about  twenty  feet  wide  by  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  deep,  and  admirably  arranged  for 
the  display  of  his  elegant  stock.  The  front  and  north  side  of 
the  store  is  a  succession  of  show-cases,  which  are  filled  with 
designs,  beautifully  trimmed  hats  of  the  latest  patterns,  gor- 
geous plumage,  artificial  flowers,  and  the  variety  belonging  to 
the  business.  The  south  side  of  the  room  is  reserved  for  the 
packed  stock,  which  includes  new  receipts,  the  samples  of 
which  only  are  oi^ened.  In  the  rear  is  the  trimming  depart- 
ment,   where    several    skillful   milliners    are    busily    engaged 


JEWELRY.  205 

trimming  hats  to  order.  At  a  desk  in  the  center  of  the  south 
side  of  the  room  stands  Mr.  Blell,  who  maintains  a  watchful 
eye  over  the  business,  and  sees  that  the  long  files  of  ladies 
which  constantly  swarm  the  store,  each  with  a  different  want, 
is  properly  waited  on  by  his  large  force  of  lady  clerks.  In 
addition  to  this  duty  he  handles  all  the  cash,  quite  enough  to 
employ  one  person,  yet  he  finds  time  to  greet  every  one  pleas- 
antly and  listen  to  propositions  and  complaints.  He  was  born 
to  urbanity,  and  this  characteristic  of  his  nature  is  a  large 
element  in  his  success. 

Summing  up  his  business,  Mr.  Blell  is  not  only  the 
acknowledged  fashionable  milliner  in  St.  Louis,  but  his  prices 
are  the  most  moderate  and  his  stock  the  most  complete.  He 
is  in  constant  receipt  of  new  goods,  the  greater  amount  of 
which  are  direct  importations  of  his  own,  bought  through  co- 
operative houses  in  Paris,  by  which  he  not  only  secures  the 
very  latest  accessions  to  fashion,  but  which  also  gives  him  the 
advantage  of  first  hands,  enabling  him  to  sell  at  the  lowest 
possible  prices.  Blell' s  is  the  emporium  of  fashion  in  St. 
Louis,  and  the  depot  of  supplies  for  a  large  number  of  dealers 
in  the  West,  and  is  truly  a  representative  St.  Louis  house. 


L.  BAUMAN  &  CO. — Wholesale  Jewelers. 

Among  the  many  truly  representative  business  houses  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley — the  prime  factors  in  the  evolution  of  our 
commercial  supremacy,  and  the  sinews  of  our  strength  and  im- 
portance— the  immense  jewelry  establishment  of  L.  Bauman 
&  Co.,  No.  314  North  Fifth  Street,  is  boldly  conspicuous. 
The  foundation  of  the  present  business  of  the  house  was  laid 
by  L.  Bauman,  Esq.,  in  1844,  in  a  small  house  on  Market, 
between  Main  and  Second  streets.  Notwithstanding  the  com- 
paratively non-importance  of  St.  Louis  at  this  early  date,  ]\Ir. 
Bauman  prospered  in  his  trade,  and  in  186G  extended  his 
fticilities  largely  by  taking  in  as  partners,  Mr.  A.  Kurtzeborn, 
and  Sol.  and  Meyer  Bauman.     The  firm  name  then  became 


206  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

L.  Bauman  &  Co., and  continued  without  further  change  until 
1872,  when  M.  A.  Kosenblatt,  our  present  Collector  of  State 
and  City  Revenues,  was  admitted  into  the  firm,  but  the  title 
of  the  house  remained  as  before.  The  firm  is  now  composed 
of  M.  A.  Eosenblatt,  A.  Kurtzeborn,  and  Sol.  and  Meyer  Bau- 
man, each  holding  an  equal  interest  in  the  concern. 

The  wholesale  jewelry  establishment  of  L.  Bauman  &  Co, 
is  beyond  compare  the  largest  west  of  New  York,  exceeding 
in  its  stock  and  aggregate  sales  the  best  houses  of  Philadel- 
phia, Baltimore,  Cincinnati  or  Chicago,  carrying  from  year  to 
year  a  stock  invoicing  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  firm  are  the  manufiicturers'  agents  for  St.  Louis  and  the 
Southwest,  for  the  best  American  clocks  and  American  watch 
movements  and  silver  cases  ;  also  for  silver-plated  ware,  such 
as  tea-sets,  castors,  fruit  stands,  cake  baskets,  salvers,  candle- 
sticks, jewel  boxes,  etc. 

Their  annual  sales  of  clocks  now  reach  55,000  ;  14,000 
American  watch  movements  and  cases,  and  2,000  Swiss 
watches ;  in  addition  to  which  they  sell  50,000  pennyweights 
of  solid  gold  chains,  and  manufacture  all  their  gold  watch- 
cases.  The}'  are  also  manufiicturers'  agents  for  the  genuine 
Rodgers  knives,  forks  and  spoons,  and  carry  the  most  com- 
plete assortment  of  materials  used  by  watchmakers  and 
jewelers  to  be  found  in  America,  comprising  everj^thing  from 
diamond  dust  to  a  jeweler's  anvil.  They  are  large  importers 
of  French  clocks  and  bronze  statuary,  and  optical  goods,  such 
as  spectacles  and  opera  glasses,  besides  carrying  the  largest 
stock  of  gold-headed  canes  to  be  found  in  the  West. 

The  building  occupied  by  L.  Bauman  &  Co.  is  five  stories 
in  height,  with  finished  basement  and  massive  stone  front,  and 
is  thirty  feet  wide  by  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  depth  ; 
every  part  of  the  building  is  utilized  by  the  firm,  the  first  floor 
being  the  ground  store-room,  wherein  the  wealth  of  an  Inca 
is  displayed  most  lavishly,  and  the  other  floors  devoted  to  the 
reserved  stocks  and  manufacturing ;  and  the  total  sales  of 
the  house  reached  the  enormous  sum  of  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars. 


JEWELRY.  207 

MERMOD,  JACCARI)  &  CO.— Jewelers. 

The  pride  of  a  great  city  centers  in  the  character  of  its 
representative  institutions,  and  it  is  therefore  only  the  truly 
metropolitan  interests  that  are  worthy  of  a  position  in  the 
historical  archives  of  a  "Tour  of  St.  Louis."  Amonjr  the 
first  of  the  great  establishments  in  which  our  pride  is  para- 
mount, is  the  colossal  jewelry  house  of  Mormod,  Jaccard  & 
Co.,  located  on  the  corner  of  Fourth  and  Locust  streets,  the 
fashionable  center  of  the  city. 

The  jewelry  business  under  Messrs.  Mermod  &  Jaccard 
has  been  conducted  for  the  past  thirty  years,  but  the  organi- 
zation of  the  present  firm  was  accomplished  in  the  3'ear  1864, 
when  they  established  themselves  in  their  present  location. 
The  store-room  on  the  corner  of  Fourth  and  Locust,  at  the 
time  of  its  occupancy  by  the  firm,  was  only  one-half  its 
present  size,  but  the  increase  of  their  business  has  been  so 
constant  as  to  compel  them  to  make  many  large  and  impor- 
tant additions.  The  house  of  Mermod,  Jaccard  &  Co.  now 
includes  the  double  store-room  on  the  corner,  the  large  build- 
ing in  the  rear,  fronting  on  Locust  Street,  and  the  third  and 
fourth  floors  of  the  building  adjoining  the  corner.  On  thes(^ 
floors  are  the  jewelry  and  solid  silverware  manufactories,  the 
entire  area  being  ten  thousand  square  feet,  and  every  foot 
occupied. 

The  firm  is  now  not  only  the  largest  dealers  in  jewelry  and 
silverware  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  but  the  only  firm  paying 
spot  cash,  under  all  circumstances,  for  every  accession  to  their 
enormous  stock.  The  advantage  this  system  gives  them  can 
be  well  understood,  by  which  they  obtain  the  benefit  of  a  dis- 
count equal  to  ten  per  cent.,  and  enabling  them  to  sell  propor- 
tionately below  the  prices  of  every  competing  house  in  the 
West.  Mermod,  Jaccard  &  Co.  have  a  reputation  based  upon 
the  reliability  of  their  goods,  and  whilst  otb.er  houses  often 
suffer  a  debasement  of  their  stock  in  order  to  sell  low,  therein' 
profiting  upon  the  ignorance  of  their  patrons,  this  firm  will 
never  abuse  the  confidence  of  their  customers  bv  such  undue 


208  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

advantao-e.  Every  article  in  their  superb  and  unrivaled  stock 
is  marked  in  plain  figures ,  from  which  no  deviation  will  be 
made.  They  calculate  each  article's  intrinsic  and  commercial 
value,  and  offer  their  goods  upon  the  very  smallest  margin, 
s^o  low  indeed  that,  quality  considered,  no  house  in  the  West 
can  come  into  successful  competition  with  them.  By  this  new 
policy  persons  from  a  distance  can  order  and  obtain  goods 
from  Mermod,  Jaccard  &  Co.  of  as  prime  quality  and  low 
price  as  though  they  made  their  purchases  in  person.  This 
system  has  a  ring  of  honesty  in  it  that  must  add  greatly  to 
the  already  high  and  enviable  reputation  of  the  firm. 


J.  B.  LEGG  &  CO.— Architects. 

The  first  ambition  of  man  is  a  graceful  habitation  which 
links  the  social  ties  in  beautiful  harmony,  and  is  the  precursor 
of  solid  comfort  in  after  years.  In  every  country  the  charac- 
ter of  the  public  and  private  buildings  is  the  barometer  of  its 
civilization  and  the  index  of  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of 
its  people,  and  as  such  St.  Louis  stands  as  one  blessed  among 
the  sisterhood  of  cities. 

Among  the  long  list  of  accomplished  architects  in  the  city, 
the  firm  of  J.  B.  Legg  &  Co.  are  most  conspicuous.  They 
have  a  large  business,  extending  over  several  States,  and  have 
designed  and  constructed  a  large  number  of  our  most  palatial 
residences,  magnificent  public  buildings  and  commercial 
houses.  Mr.  Leo;":  established  himself  as  an  architect  in  this 
city  about  eight  years  ago,  and  though  young  at  that  time,  his 
ability  was  soon  recognized,  and  his  advancement  became 
rapid,  until  now  his  business  is  the  largest  of  any  architect 
perhaps  in  the  West.  Among  the  large  number  of  buildings 
erected  after  his  designs  and  under  his  superintendence,  maybe 


ARCHITECTS.  209 

mentioned  the  Illinois  Institute  for  the  Blind  at  Jacksonville  ; 
Anzeiger  Building,  St.  Louis  ;  Public  School  Building,  Litch- 
field, Illinois  ;  Centenary  Church,  Pine  and  Sixteenth  streets  ; 
St.  Paul's  Church,  Mount  Calvary  Church,  Samuel  Cupples' 
paper  bag  factory,  D.  Crawford  &  Co.'s  new  building,  St.  Louis. 
Of  the  hundreds  of  handsome  residences  are  those  of  Geo. 
E.  Morehouse  and  Wm.  F.  Busher,  Decatur,  Illinois  ;  Hon. 
Moody  Grubb  and  Col.  McWilliams,  Litchfield,  Illinois;  J, 
M.  Hamill  and  Dr.  West,  Belleville,  Illinois;  Dr.  J.  F. 
Haws,  Charleston,  Missouri;  E.  Allison,  Clinton,  Missouri; 
Henry  Sheppard,  Springfield,  Missouri ;  B.  F.  Cauthorn, 
Mexico,  Missouri ;  George  McGoverns,  Kirksville,  Missouri ; 
Joseph  M.  Steer,  Webster,  Missouri ;  Wm.  J.  Thompson 
and  Wm.  Hooker,  Little  Rock,  Arkansas;  Edward  Mead, 
Oak  Hill;  N.  G.  Pierce,  T.  Z.  Blakeman,  F.  C.  Bonsack, 
Capt.  Wade,  St.  Louis. 

Last  January  Mr.  Legg  associated  with  himself  Charles  C. 
Helmers,  Jr.,  son  of  Mr.  Helmers,  of  Dodd,  Brown  &  Co., 
who  for  the  last  four  3^ears  was  an  earnest  student  of  architect- 
ure in  Europe,  and  is  a  young  man  of  bright  promise,  and 
already  an  expert  in  the  business.  The  office  of  J.  B.  Legg 
&  Co.  is  in  the  Insurance  Exchange  Building,  Fifth  and  Olive 
streets,  where  they  keep  constantly  on  hand  hundreds  of  de- 
signs of  all  kinds  of  buildings,  and  are  ever  ready  to  impart 
all  information  pertaining  to  their  business.  About  two  years 
since  Mr.  Legg  published  a  book  on  architecture,  entitled  a 
"Home  for  Everj^body,"  with  an  issue  of  six  thousand  copies, 
and  so  great  has  been  the  demand  for  them  they  are  nearly 
disposed  of  to  their  patronage  from  eighteen  or  nineteen 
States,  and  they  are  now  preparing  an  enlarged  edition,  which 
will  soon  go  to  press. 


14 


210 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


A.  A.  MELLIEK. — Our  REPRESENTATm:  Druggist. 


The  character  of  an  establishment,  like  that  of  individuals, 
is  generally  measured  by  its  success,  and  in  presenting  our 
readers  with  a  panoramic  view  of  the  great  industries  and  com- 
mercial marts  of  St.  Louis,  it  is  important  in  the  selection  of 
representative  institutions  and  establishments  to  consider  those 
most  successful. 

The  drug  trade  of  this  city  has 
assumed  an  entirely  new  and  dis- 
tinct jDhase  during  the  past  dozen 
years,  so  distinct,  indeed,  that  in 
the  entire  history  of  the  business 
during  so  long  a  time  past,  not  a 
single  chapter  would  apply  to  the 
trade  of  to-day.  This  change  had 
its  origin  in  the  tributary  exactions 
of  Eastern  monopolists,  in  a  sys- 
tem that  obtained  and  flourished 
until  within  the  past  few  years. 
The  abuses  which  prevailed  so  long 
have  been  greatly  corrected  by  the 
determined  opposition  of  such 
larse  and  influential  druo^sjists  as 
A.  A.  Mellier,  Esq.,  who,  in  con- 
nection with  othei-s,  have  sought,  through  energetic,  organized 
effort,  to  remove  the  evils  mentioned  and  promote  the  general 
interests  of  Western  druggists. 

It  is,  therefore,  no  less  the  man  than  the  institution  of 
which  he  is  sole  proprietor,  that  A.  A.  Mellier's  drug  store 
finds  appropriate  position  in  this  volume  as  the  representative 
druo-  house  of  St.  Louis. 

The  attention  to  details  necessary  to  form  a  correct  descrip- 
tion of  an  establishment  tires  a  reader  by  carrying  him  into  a 
prosaic  realm  unsuited  to  the  tastes  of  all  save  metaphysicians, 
we  will  therefore  attempt  only  to  outline  the  features  of  this  mag- 
nificent establishment  and  the  processes  out  of  which  it  grew. 
Twenty-one  years  ago  Mr,  Mellier  begun  the  drug  business 
in  St.  Louis  under  the  firm  name  of  Richardson,  Mellier  &  Co., 


.    DEUGS.  211 

but  shortly  afterwards  the  title  of  the  firm  was  changed  to 
Scott  &  Mellier,  with  place  of  business  on  the  corner  of  Main 
Street  and  Washington  Avenue.  This  co-partnership  existed 
but  a  short  time,  when  Mr.  Mellier  purchased  his  partner's 
interest  and  became  sole  proprietor.  His  trade  developed  rap- 
idly and  very  soon  he  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  largest 
wholesale  druggists  in  the  West. 

In  1875,  Mr.  Mellier's  keen  foresight  pictured  Washington 
Avenue,  from  Sixth  to  Tenth  streets,  as  the  coming  center  of 
trade,  and  in  considering  the  main  advantages  of  removal  had 
his  attention  specially  drawn  to  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from 
the  establishment  of  a  retail  prescription  and  fancy  goods  de- 
partment, in  conjunction  with  his  extensive  jobbing  business. 
This  resulted  in  the  selection  of  Nos.  709  and  711  Washino-ton 
Avenue,  which  building  was  fitted  up  in  the  most  elaborate 
style,  being  finished  from  bottom  to  top  with  all  modern  con- 
veniences, not  only  for  the  comfort  of  his  patrons  but  to  facil- 
itate their  business  intercourse.  The  many  whc  throng  the 
establishment  daily  attest  the  wisdom  of  the  proprietor  and  the 
success  of  his  method  of  conducting  this  department. 

The  building  has  a  frontage  on  Washington  Avenue  of 
forty-five  feet  and  a  depth  of  ninety  feet,  running  back  to  the 
alley  which  separates  the  main  building  from  the  warehouse, 
and  is  four  stories  in  height.  The  front  is  elegantly  finished, 
with  massive  iron  columns,  and  large  plate-glass  windows, 
which  light  every  room  as  perfectly  as  though  the  full  gush  of 
sunlight  fell  athwart  them. 

The  retail  department,  on  the  ground  floor,  is  the  finest  as 
well  also  as  the  largest  in  the  city,  a  description  of  the  fur- 
nishing and  arrangement  of  which  would  only  pale  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  place.  We  have,  perhaps,  all  seen  such  perfect 
adaptability  of  articles  to  the  positions  occupied,  and  the  ex- 
quisite display  of  costly  ornamentation  that  excites  a  feeling 
higher  than  admiration,  which  we  instinctively  refuse  to  picture 
by  words — such  a  place  is  Mellier's  retail  department.  The 
advantage  derived  from  his  wholesale  business  enables  Mr. 
Mellier  to  put  up  prescriptions,  retail  his  medicines,  and  sell 
his  fancy  goods  much  cheaper  than  the  exclusively  retail  dealers, 
and  operating  upon  this  basis  he  has  become  a  blessing  to  the 


212  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

hundreds  who  have  been  compelled  to  pay  exorbitant  prices  ; 
in  fact,  his  figures  are  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  less  than  others, 
with  a  fair  margin  yet  remaining. 

The  four  floors  of  his  large  house,  as  also  the  four-story 
warehouse  in  the  rear,  are  filled  with  every  conceivable  article 
having  any  proper  connection  with  the  drug  trade,  and  a  stock 
larger  in  the  aggregate  than  any  other  drug  store  in  St.  Louis. 

The  upper  floor  of  the  warehouse  is  the  compounding  de- 
partment for  Mellier's  proprietary  medicines,  many  of  which 
are  in  national  use,  such  as  the  "Imperial  Tonic  Bitters,'* 
"Santonine  Worm  Candy,"  "Mellier's  Cod  Liver  Oil,"  "Mel- 
lier's Essence  Jamaica  Ginger,"  "Chapman's  Cough  Syrup," 
"Mellier's  Compound  Extract  of  Buchu,"  "Texas  Stock  Con- 
dition Powders,"   "Mellier's  Arnica  Liniment,"  etc. 

In  another  department  of  the  warehouse  several  operatives 
are  busily  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  Elliot's  Patent  Sad- 
dle Bags,  an  article  of  recognized  prime  importance  to  all 
physicians.  Mr.  Mellier  is  the  proprietor  of  this  valuable  in- 
vention and  does  his  own  manufacturing.  These  bags  are 
made  only  of  the  best  calf-skin,  and  are  the  most  convenient 
and  admirably  adapted  companion  for  physicians  ever  put  upon 
the  market.  They  need  only  to  be  seen  to  secure  immediate 
favor,  their  advantages  being  so  numerous  as  to  recommend 
them  to  every  one. 

Imperfect  as  this  notice  necessarily  must  be,  the  reader  can 
not  be  otherwise  than  impressed  with  the  importance  of  Mel- 
lier's drug  store  to  the  commercial  interests  of  St.  Louis,  and 
the  assurance  that  it  well  deserves  its  immense  patronage. 


CHEEVER,  BURCHARD  &  CO.— House  Furnishing. 

In  every  large  city  there  are  certain  popular  and  represent- 
ative houses  of  a  special  line  of  goods,  founded  upon  the  com- 
pleteness of  their  stock  and  enterprise  of  the  proprietors,  to 
which  the  public  turn  with  a  certainty  of  finding  just  what  they 
desire,  and  that,  too,  of  the  best  quality.  What  A.  T.  Stewart 


HOUSE    FURNISHING.  213 

is  to  New  York,  Worth  is  to  Paris,  Field,  Leiter  &  Co.  to 
Chicago,  Wni.  Barr  and  I).  Crawford  to  St.  Louis,  is  the  firm 
of  Cheever,  Burchard  &  Co.  to  our  own  city — firms  that  have 
gained  the  most  extensive  reputation  and  become  the  public's 
great  emporium  for  special  lines  of  goods. 

The  original  firm,  out  of  which  grew  the  house  of  Cheever, 
Burchard  &  Co.,  was  established  in  the  year  1846  by  Warnc 
<fc  Merritt,  and  was  located  on  Market,  between  Main  and 
Second  streets,  in  what  was  then  the  heart  of  the  business 
center  of  St.  Louis.  They  carried  a  very  large  stock  and  did 
a  commensurate  business  until  1849,  when  their  bouse  was 
destroyed  by  the  great  conflagration  of  that  year.  Phoenix- 
like, they  rose  from  the  ashes  of  their  burnt  offering,  and 
secured  quarters  in  one  of  the  first  of  the  new  buildino-s 
directly  afterwards  erected  on  Main,  between  Chestnut  and 
Pine  streets. 

In  the  year  1858  Mr.  Merritt  disposed  of  his  interest  in 
the  store  to  Mr.  Cheever,  when  the  firm  name  was  chansred  to 
"Warne,  Cheever  &  Co.  The  business  of  the  city  at  this  time 
begun  to  extend  up  Main,  Second  and  Fourth  streets,  and  the 
£rm  saw  the  importance  of  establishing  their  house  in  the 
advance  of  the  moving  trade  ;  accordingly,  they  leased  their 
present  store  in  the  Collier  Block,  in  the  year  1861,  at  that 
time  the  finest  block  of  buildings  west  of  New  York. 

No  new  changes  occurred  in  the  business  until  1870,  when 
IVIr.  Warne  retired  and  the  name  of  the  firm  was  changed  to 
its  present  title,  Cheever,  Burchard  &  Co.  The  house  deals 
in  house-furnishing  articles  generally,  making  a  specialty  of 
silver-plated  ware,  cutlery  and  children's  carriages,  in  which 
last-named  article,  they  are  the  largest  dealers  in  America. 
They  are  also  large  manufacturers  of  bird  cages  ;  and  keep  an 
extensive  stock,  which  comprises  nearly  every  conceivable 
article  of  household  use,  in  which  special  line  they  have  no 
competitors. 

Cheever,  Burchard  &  Co.  are  the  head  and  front  of  their 
particular  business,  and  have  secured  a  trade,  both  jobbing 
and  retail,  that  is  no  less  than  surprising.  They  keep  four 
men  constantly  in  the  country,  and  their  goods  may  be  found 
in  use  in  nearly  every  family  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 


214  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

STORY  &  CAMP'S  MUSIC  HOUSE. 

Of  the  numerous  institutions  interesting  to  those  of 
aesthetic  culture,  there  is  none  more  worthy  of  favorable 
mention  in  this  work,  than  the  mammoth  musical  emporium 
of  Story  &  Camp,  Nos.  912  and  914  Olive  Street.  This 
house  now  contains  more  than  two  hundred  sample  pianos  of 
the  most  famous  manufacturers,  including  the  Chickering, 
Stein  way,  and  Decker  Brothers,  each  of  which  have  their  own 
particular  merits,  and  acknowledged  by  all  the  great  musicians 
to  be  the  three  leading  pianos  of  the  world.  These  instru- 
ments are  made  in  grand,  square  and  upright  cases,  from  the 
plainest  to  the  most  elaborate  finish.  This  house  also  deals 
in  the  Mathushek  and  Haines  pianos,  which  for  moderate 
prices  are  well  made,  of  full  and  powerful  tone  and  very 
durable. 

The  Story  &  Camp  pianos  have,  however,  acquired  an 
honorable  position  and  reputation  among  musicians,  which  is 
constantly  increasing.  They  are  remarkable  for  sweetness, 
brilliancy,  endurance,  power  and  general  excellence.  All  the 
modern  improvents  are  combined  in  them,  and  every  purchaser 
is  given  a  written  guarantee  fully  warranting  the  instrument 
for  five  years.  The  trade  and  the  public  will  find  them  the 
best  and  most  acceptable  medium-priced  pianos  in  use. 

Story  &  Camp  are  also  general  Western  and  Southwestern 
agents  for  the  celebrated  Estey  organs,  which  for  thirty  years 
have  sustained  a  reputation  that  has  placed  them  beyond  com- 
petition. The  manufactory  producing  these  instruments  is 
the  largest  organ  factory  in  the  world.  No  other  organ  has 
gained  an  equal  popularity,  and  none  but  first-class  instru- 
ments in  every  respect  are  allowed  to  leave  the  establishment. 

Story  &  Camp  stand  at  the  head  of  the  musical  trade  of 
the  West.  Their  establishments  here  and  at  Chicago  are  the 
two  largest  west  of  New  York.  The  members  of  the  firm 
rank  high  among  our  successful  merchants  and  manufacturers. 
They  have  built  up  one  of  the  strongest  and  best  mercantile 
houses  in  the  country,  and  their  establishment  is  both  an  honor 
to  themselves  and  a  credit  to  St.  Louis. 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


215 


THE  SINGER  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

One  of  the  chief  monu- 
ments to  the  inventive  jren- 
ins  of  the  day  is  the  Singer 
Building,  located  on  the 
corner  of  Fifth  and  Locust 
streets.  This  is  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  ornate 
edifices  in  the  West,  and  is 
a  representative  institution 
of  the  success,  superiority 
andpopularitj'of  the  Singer 
Machine.  The  building  was 
contracted  for  on  the  2 2d 
of  October,  1872,  and  was 
completed  and  occupied  in 
the  latter  part  of  1874,  its 
cost  approximating  six  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  a  better  idea  of  which  may  be  obtained 
by  the  accompanying  illustration  than  by  a  written  description. 

The  new  Singer  Family  Sewing  Machine, 
which  has  been  reduced  thirty  dollars  less 
than  former  prices,  has  obtained  a  popu- 
larity unparalleled  by  any  piece  of  ma- 
chinery ever  patented.  One  of  the  best 
indications  of  its  superiority  over  all  com- 
petitors is  found  in  the  comparative  sales 
of  machines  during  the  past  several  years. 
In  1876,  the  year  of  great  depression, 
while  the  sales  of  all  other  machines  fell 
off  largely,  the  Singer  increased  from  181,260  in  1875  to 
262,316  machines  in  1876,  and  in  1877  increased  to  282,812. 
The  manager  of  the  Singer  Sewing  Machine  Company  in  this  city 
is  D.  Snitjer,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  of  ripe  experience  and  alfable 
disposition,  always  ready  to  impart  all  information  desired. 
He  is  assisted  in  liis  immense  business  by  an  able  corps  of 
clerks,  and  has  every  facility  for  the  expeditious  transaction  of 
the  affairs  of  the  company. 


216  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

WHEELER  &  WILSON  SEWING  MACHINES. 

Among  the  marvels  of  mechanism  in  this  age  of  ingenuity 
and  industry,  the  sewing  machine  is  most  conspicuous,  havuig 
wrought  an  ahuost  magical  change  in  the  improvement  of 
woman's  condition,  by  lessening  her  drudgery  and  opening 
new  avenues  for  her  labor.  The  history  of  this  great  inven- 
tion, although  full  of  absorbing  interest,  is  out  of  place  in  this 
work,  except  that  portion  which  refers  to  the  company  named 
in  the  caption.  While  Elias  Howe  is  awarded  the  credit  for 
having  invented  the  sewing  machine,  his  claim  to  the  honor 
rests  upon  as  frail  a  tenure  as  the  merit  which  credits  Ameri- 
cus  Vespucci  with  the  discovery  of  America.  Howe's  machine 
was  at  best  a  very  clumsy,  tedious  piece  of  mechanism,  but 
nevertheless  a  vast  improvement  upon  the  hand  needle.  It  was 
the  ingenuity  of  Wilson,  now  of  the  famous/  firm  of  Wheeler 
&  Wilson,  that  gave  to  the  sewing  machine  the  perfecting 
parts — the  magical  touches  which  made  it  the  complete  and 
obedient  servant  it  now  is.  The  inventions  of  Mr.  Allen  B. 
Wilson  include  the  foot  and  fore-action  feed,  two  of  the  most 
important  adjuncts  to  the  machine,  without  which,  indeed, 
the  mechanism  of  Mr.  Howe  would  be  of  comparatively  very 
small  service. 

The  Wheeler  &  Wilson  Company  was  established  in  1852, 
in  which  year  they  manufactured  and  sold  about  four  hundred 
machines  ;  in  the  following  year  their  sales  reached  seven  hun- 
dred and  ninety-nine,  and  shortly  afterwards  the  increased 
demand  caused  the  company  to  abandon  their  small  factory  in 
Watertown  for  a  more  capacious  factory  in  Bridgeport,  Conn., 
which  has  been  enlarged  and  added  to,  until  now  it  is  one  of 
the  largest,  as  well  also  as  one  of  the  finest,  manufactories  in 
the  world.  The  sales  have  been  rapidly  increasing  every  year, 
and  in  1877  footed  up  over  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  thous- 
and machines. 

The  rivalry  between  the  numerous  machines  put  upon  th(^ 
market  has  been,  for  many  years,  and  is  still  very  strong,  and 
the  honors  won  have  generally  been  upon  the  liasis  of  strict  jus- 
tice.    At  the  Vienna  Exposition,  held  in  1873,  the  competition 


SEWING    MACHINES.  217 

was  very  bitter,  and  the  judorment  of  the  awarding  com- 
mittees was  never  expressed  until  the  most  critical  examina- 
tion of  the  articles  in  their  respective  departments  Avas  made. 
After  the  most  scrutinizing  inspection  of  all  the  sewinii- 
machines  on  exhibition  was  concluded,  the  award  for  superi- 
ority in  all  general  features  was  made  to  the  Wheeler  & 
Wilson  ;  and  the  judges,  not  content  Avith  even  so  distinguished 
recognition  of  the  machine,  presented  ]\Ir.  Wheeler  with  the 
grand  medal  of  honor  for  being  the  greatest  promoter  of  sew- 
ing machine  industr}'  in  the  world.  Honors  have  since  fallen 
fast  upon  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson  machine,  it  having  received 
the  highest  awards  at  the  Centennial  Exposition,  and  tirst 
premiums  at  the  State  fairs  of  every  State  in  the  Union. 

The  latest  improvement  of  these  grand  machines  is  known 
as  the  "  W^heeler  &  Wilson's  New  No.  8,"  which  combines 
every  superior  feature  of  all  other  machines,  and  new  ones 
introduced  by  the  manufacturers,  and  is  in  every  sense  the 
embodied  perfection  of  all  sewing  machine  mechanism.  These 
machines,  superior  as  they  are  to  all  others  in  the  execution, 
of  their  work,  lightness  of  running,  simplicity  of  construction, 
and  their  adaptability  to  all  needle  work,  either  light  or  heavy, 
are  sold  at  as  low  prices  and  on  as  favorable  terms.  The 
headquarters  of  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, for  the  territory  adjacent  to  St.  Louis,  is  at  No.  415 
North  Fifth  Street,  this  city,  the  office  and  salesroom  being 
under  the  management  of  A.  B.  Howard,  Esq.,  an  experienced 
and  courteous  agent.  The  building  is  very  large  and  well 
lighted,  giving  intending  purchasers  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions for  examining  the  various  styles  of  these  popular 
machines.  To  see  the  construction  of  the  New  No.  8,  and  the 
elegance  of  its  workmanship,  is  sufficient  to  demonstrate  its 
superiority,  and  excites  the  most  impatient  desire  for  its 
immediate  possession. 


218  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

EUGENE  PAPIN  &  CO.— Carriages  and  Buggies. 

There  is  no  article  made  by  human  hands  conducive  of 
more  genuine  enjoyment,  or  more  healthful  and  exhilarating 
pleasure  than  a  perfectly  made  carriage  or  buggy.  Skimming 
over  the  gentle  undulations  of  the  road,  with  every  nerve  in 
repose  for  the  keen  appreciation  of  the  effects,  is  only  a  step 
removed  from  flying ;  while  the  swift  luxurious  motion  is  far 
more  pleasurable  than  a  siesta  on  the  thick  and  lazy  clouds. 
The  great  diflerence  between  the  several  kinds  of  spring  vehicles 
made  must  necessarily  qualify  the  simile :  the  best,  like  the 
"Eclipse,"  furnishing  the  most  beatific  enjoyment,  while  the 
poor  buggy  produces  a  correspondingly  inverse  result.  The 
representative  manufacturers  of  top  and  open ,  buggies  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley  is  Eugene  Papin  &  Co.,  whose  factory  is  at 
Nos.  900  to  908  Clark  Avenue. 

Among  the  finest  buggies  made  by  the  firm,  in  which  the 
latest  improved  springs  are  used,  are  the  "Dexter,"  "Saladee," 
"Eclipse,"  the  last  one  named  being,  in  every  respect,  the 
easiest,  cheapest  and  best  buggy  ever  made  by  any  factory. 
Its  vast  superiority  consists  in  its  simplicity,  lightness, 
strength,  durability  and  ease  of  motion,  representing,  in  short, 
the  improvement  of  all  others  in  combination,  which  makes 
the  "Eclipse  "  superior  in  every  feature.  In  addition  to  the 
points  of  superiority  named,  the  "  Eclipse  "  is  the  most  ele- 
gant in  appearance  ;  it  has  no  rigid  perch  to  throw  the  hind 
wheels  out  of  track ;  there  can  be  no  side  motion  to  the  buggy 
body  when  the  weight  is  unevenly  distributed  on  the  springs  ; 
it  is  less  liable  to  get  out  of  repair ;  the  springs  are  made  of 
the  best  English  steel,  and  the  spring-heads  provided  with 
Saladee' s  improved  anti-friction  spools  ;  and  lastly,  there  is 
positive  safety  from  accident  in  case  of  a  broken  spring,  as 
the  springs  are  so  combined  and  rigidly  united  at  the  cross- 
centers  that  either  of  the  springs  may  be  broken  without 
letting  the  body  fall  below  the  cross-stays. 

Eugene  Papin  &  Co.  also  manufacture  all  the  latest  styles 
of  buggies,  and  keep  in  stock  a  large  number  of  handsome 
vehicles,  all  of  which  are  sold  as  low  as  the  superior  workman- 
ship and  extra  quality  of  the  material  used  will  admit. 


CARRIAGES    AND    BUGGIES. 


219 


The  individual  members  of  the  firm  tiro  Eugene  Pjipin  iind 
Edward  A.  Bohnes.     Mr.  Papin  is  a  descendant  of  one  of  the 
oldest  St.  Louis  families,  and  the  name  is  connected  with  many 
of  the  most  important  en- 
terprises which  have  pro- 
pelled our  city  so  rapidly 
into  the  realm  of  metro- 
politan greatness. 

Mr.  Bolmes,  the  junior 
member,  is  also  an  old  cit- 
izen, but  for  the  last  sev- 
eral years  he  has  spent  a 
greater  portion  of  his  time 
traveling  through  the 
South  in  the  interest  of 
the  firm.  He  has  a  most 
extensive  and  popular  ac- 
quaintance with  the  trade, 
and  by  his  business  talents 
he  has  succeeded  in  draw- 
ing an  immense  portion  of  o 
the  trade  of  that  section  :< 
to  St.  Louis  which  form- 
erly went  East.  The  firm 
is  now  making  strenuous 
exertions  to  secure  the 
patronage  of  Mexico,  and 
already  their  efforts  are 
realizing  excellent  re- 
turns. The  cnteriorise  and 
exceptional  character  of 
the  carriages  made  by  Eu- 
gene Papin  &  Co.,  entitle 

them  to  the  highest  consideration  of  the  public,  and  their 
present  success  is  au  indication  of  a  proper  appreciation  of 
their  worthy  efforts. 


220  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

ALOE  &  HERNSTEIN.— Optical  and  Surgical 
Instruments. 

That  perseverance  and  attention  to  details  will  always  win, 
find  excellent  illustration  in  the  business  career  of  A.  S.  Aloe, 
the  largest  dealer  in  optical  and  surgical  instruments  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  Mr.  Aloe  begun  business  as  an  optician 
in  the  year  1862,  occupying  a  small  room  in  the  building  on  the 
northwest  corner  of  Fifth  and  Chestnut  streets.  His  means 
were  limited,  which  made  his  progress  slow,  and  success  seemed 
uncertain.  In  1864,  he  changed  the  location  of  his  business  to 
the  corner  of  Third  and  Olive,  where  he  remained  until  1867, 
when  he  again  moved,  to  No.  206  North  Fourth  Street.  Here 
the  dawn  of  success  appeared  to  him,  but  not  without  the  most 
persistent  effort  and  diligence.  In  the  year  1875,  Mr.  Aloe 
associated  wdth  him  W.  H.  Hernstein,  Esq.,  and  added  surgical 
instruments,  starting  a  manufactory  at  No.  311  North  Fourth 
Street,  up-stairs,  which  is  still  running,  giving  employment  to 
fifteen  skillful  workmen.  Their  business  increased  rapidly, 
until  the  firm  was  forced  to  seek  a  more  capacious  building,  and 
in  April,  1877,  they  removed  to  their  present  location,  north- 
east corner  of  Fourth  and  Olive  streets,  one  of  the  most  eligi- 
ble positions  and  finest  store-rooms  in  the  city. 

The  stock  carried  by  Aloe  &  Hernstein  comprises  every  con- 
ceivable optical,  surgical  and  mathematical  instrument  in- 
vented ;  and  nearly  all  their  goods  are  of  their  own  manufact- 
ure, enabling  them  to  give  the  most  complete  warrant  to  every- 
thing they  sell.  The  firm  are  now  not  only  the  largest  dealers 
of  the  kind  in  the  West,  but  are  also  the  largest  manufacturers 
of  mathematical  and  surgical  instruments. 

Mr.  Aloe  is  a  gentlemen  who  has  attained  his  present  high 
position  by  a  display  of  the  most  astonishing  energy  ;  and  St. 
Louis  credits  him  with  an  enterprise  few  possess.  Mr.  Hern- 
stein is  thoroughly  posted  in  the  business  of  surgical  instru- 
ments, and  gives  to  this  department  his  exclusive  attention,  the 
partnership  being  confined  to  these  goods,  Mr.  Aloe  remaining 
alone  as  a  dealer  in  optical  instruments.  Their  business  is 
very  large  and  their  facilities  unsurpassed,  which  enables  them 
to  sell  their  goods  at  closer  figures  than  their  competitors. 


SCALES.  221 

FAIRBANKS'    SCALES. 

The  name  of  Fairlnanks  is  synonymous  with  the  instru- 
ments with  which  justice  measures  equitably  to  all.  To  men- 
tion Fairbanks  is  to  think  of  scales ;  to  see  a  scale  is  to 
remember  Fairbanks. 

No  other  name  in  the  commercial  world  is  more  widely 
known.  Not  only  in  the  State  of  Vermont,  where  the  name 
first  became  known  and  honored  ;  not  onl}^  in  the  mighty 
federation  of  States,  in  which  Vermont  is  one  of  the  least ; 
not  only  in  the  family  of  nations,  dominions,  provinces  and 
colonies,  wherein  the  English  language  is  employed,  but  in  all 
lands  to  which  commerce  has  extended,  the  name  of  "  Fair- 
banks' Scales"  is  familiar. 

In  the  distant  East  and  the  remote  West,  in  the  h}^Dobo- 
rean  regions,  and  in  sunny  tropic  lands,  everywhere,  among 
traders  who  recognize  the  ethics  of  honor,  equity  and  integrity, 
Fairbanks'  scales  may  be  found,  as  the  instruments  which 
justice  employs  in  executing  equitable  transactions  between 
man  and  man,  so  to-day  the  Fairbanks'  Scale  Works  is  one 
of  the  most  widely  known  of  American  industrial  establish- 
ments. The  Messrs.  Fairbanks  in  the  pursuit  of  scale-making 
have  kept  pace  with  the  onward  strides  of  a  rapidly  moving 
world  ;  have  met  all  the  varied  demands  for  weio-hinjx  machines 
from  all  parts  of  the  habitable  globe,  so  that  their  list  of  scale 
modifications  now  numbers  more  than  six  hundred. 

Mr.  Thaddeus  Fairbanks,  the  inventor  of  the  scale,  now,  at 
the  advanced  age  of  more  than  four-score  years,  is  hale  and 
erect,  with  mind  active  and  precise  as  it  was  almost  half  a 
century  ago.  In  token  of  recognition  of  the  benefits  conferred 
upon  the  whole  commercial  world  by  his  genius,  he  has 
received  civic  decorations  from  a  half  dozen  sovereigns,  has 
been  knighted  by  an  emperor,  and  decorated  b}^  a  Moslem  ruler. 

They  have  now  sixteen  branch  houses  located  in  the  prin- 
cipal cities  of  this  country,  with  one  house  in  London,  the 
great  mart  of  the  world  ;  so  it  may  safely  be  said  that  the 
Messrs.  Fairbanks  are  more  closely  identified  with  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  our  whole  country,  yea,  the  whole  world, 
than  any  other  American  manufacturing  establishment. 


222  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Their  house  in  St.  Louis,  under  the  style  of  Fairbanks  & 
Co.,  occupies  the  spacious  building  Nos.  302  and  304  Wash- 
ington Avenue,  where  may  be  found  almost  every  variety  of 
their  world-renowned  standard  scales. 


H.  GRIFFIN  &  SONS.— Leather  and  Binders'  Materials. 

It  was  a  practical  philosopher  who  first  declared  that 
*'  there  is  nothing  like  leather,"  an  expression  which  has 
since  become  an  adage  of  frequent  ai^plication.  The  trade  of 
St.  Louis  in  leather  is  an  important  industry,  which  is  con- 
stantly growing  in  importance,  and  is  worthy  of  recognition 
in  this  compendium  of  our  city's  wealth  and  commercial 
standinof. 

The  representative  firm  of  a  special  branch  of  the  leather 
trade  of  St.  Louis,  is  that  of  H.  GriiEn  &  Sons,  No.  304 
North  Main  Street,  who  are  the  only  importers  of  book-binders' 
stock  west  of  New  York  city.  This  house  was  established  in 
New  York  as  early  as  1836,  and  in  1871  the  firm  established 
a  branch  here,  originally  locating  at  No.  24  South  Third,  re- 
moving to  their  present  place  of  business  early  in  1877.  The 
house  deals  in  moroccos,  Russian  leather,  colored  and  book 
skivers,  fleshes,  roans,  calf  and  lamb  skins,  English  book 
cloth  and  marble  papers,  glues,  gums,  gold  leaf,  brilliant  rul- 
ing inks,  cloth  and  stencil  boards,  and  book-binders'  materials 
of  every  description,  including  numbering  machines,  emboss- 
ing presses,  perforators,  ruling  machines,  table  and  card 
shears,  backing  and  stabbing  machines,  finishing  rolls,  stamps, 
etc.,  etc.  In  connection  with  this  business  it  is  important  to 
mention  an  advantage  they  give  patrons  offered  by  no  other 
house  west  of  New  York.  The  firm  carries  the  larg-est  stock 
in  their  line  in  the  United  States,  and  either  import  or  manu- 
facture all  the  goods  they  handle.  This  is  a  great  feature  of 
the  business  of  New  York,  but  St.  Louis  receives  the  identical 
benefits  thus  obtained  by  the  firm,  for  all  the  goods  of  the 
branch  house  here  are  also  direct  importations  made  in  original 


NICKEL    WATCHES. 


22'A 


packages  ;  hence  the  St.  Louis  house  make  all  their  quotations 
at  the  same  prices  as  the  New  York  firm,  and  sell  all  their 
goods  in  strict  accordance  with  the  legitimate  and  original 
numbers,  grades  and  sizes. 

H.  Griffin  &  Sons  have  only  sought  the  patronage  of  first- 
class  buyers,  who  appreciate  the  advantages  of  buying  direct 
from  first  hands  and  in  original  packages.  The  trade  of  this 
house  is  co-extensive  Avith  the  West,  having  been  built  up  here 
in  a  very  short  space  of  time  by  Mr.  G.  H.  Griffin,  who  is  in 
charge,  and  yet  every  year  witnesses  an  immense  increase  in 
their  sales.  Parties  dealing  with  this  house  save  a  large  jier- 
centage  over  prices  asked  elsewhere,  and  always  secure  prime 
articles. 


MARVELOUS  NICKEL  WATCHES.— L.  Dresser,  Agent. 

One  of  the  best  known  places  in  St.  Louis  is  doul)tle8s 
No.  30,5  North  Seventh  Street.  If  you  have  never  been  there 
the  query,  "  Why  best  known?  "  is  pertinent,  and  it  is  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  are  at  a  loss  to  determine  the  remarkable 
feature  of  the  place  that  these  pages  are  written. 

On  the  outside  of  the  building  a  sign  is  noticed,  •'  F.  A. 
Durgin,  Manufacturer  of  Solid  Silverware,"  whirh  has  dis- 
tinguished the  place  for  the  past 
seventeen  years,  and  every  citi- 
zen knows  it  to  l)e  one  of  the 
most  reliable  houses  in  the 
West. 

On  entering  the  building  you 
at  once  perceive  that  it  is  a 
mine  of  ornamental  wealth,  and 
the  fitting  up  is  in  keeping  Avith 
the  magnificence  of  the  silver- 
ware so  lavishl}'^  disph\yed.  But 
the  elegance  of  the  surroundings  is  not  the  feature  of  the  phuHi. 


224 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


Thi 


S  IS 


Approaching  to  the  rear  of  the  room,  you  will  find  a  gentleman 
seated hy  a  small  desk,  busily  engaged  with  his  correspondence, 

with  perhaps  a  small  box  of  watches 
by  his  side.  This  is  L.  Dresser, 
the  General  Western  Agent  of  the 
New  York  Watch  ComiDany.  So 
far,  there  is  nothing  remarkable  in 
either  the  place  nor  the  gentleman 
you  find  within  :  but  if  you  ask  the 
oentleman  at  the  small  desk  to 
show  you  some  of  his  watches, 
then  surprise  will  take  possession 
of  you. 
^vhat  you  will  see  :  Mr.  Dresser  will  go  at  once  to  a 
safe  which  occupies  a  corner  in  the  rear  of  the  room,  and 
pulling  out  one  of  the  shallow  drawers,  he  will  set  before  you 
two  or  three  dozen  of  the  finest  appearing  time-pieces  ever 
brought  to  the  city. 

If  you  desire  making  a  purchase  you  will  be  certain  to 
remark  that  these  watches  are  more  expensive  than  you  desire. 
Mr.  Dresser  will  startle  you  with  the  reply  that  the  watches 
are  very  cheap,  being  sold  at  only  ten  dollars  each,  and  that 
every  watch  is  guaranteed  for  the  period  of  one  year. 

Well,  no  one  will  blame  you  for  being  so  thoroughly 
surprised  as  to  make  incredulity  manifest  on  your  countenance, 
for  that  is  precisely  the  manner  all  are  afiected  to  whom  Mr. 
Dresser  makes  the  reply  ;  for  the  watches  are  an  exact  imita- 
tion of  the  fifty  and  sixty  dollar  railroad  time-pieces  which 
met  with  such  a  large  demand  two  or  three  years  ago. 

But  don't  be  deceived  by  any  one  who  will  tell  you  that 
these  watches  are  only  an  imitation,  so  far  as  looks  are 
concerned,  and  are  unreliable  time-pieces  ;  for  the  fact  is  that 
there  never  was  a  better  watch  made  than  these  ten  dollar 
watches  sold  by  Mr.  Dresser.  The  cases  are  made  of  nickel, 
are  heavily  and  handsomely  designed,  and  the  works  are 
manufactured  by  the  New  York  Watch  Company,  and  are 
stamped  with  that  company's  trade-mark,  and  accompanying 
each  watch  is  a  solemn  guarantee  that  it  will  keep  correct  time. 
These  watches  are  made  in  two  styles,  the  open  face  and 


NICKEL   WATCHES,  225 

double  case.  The  open  fiice  is  i)rotectcd  by  a  thick,  flat 
crystal,  and  the  dial  is  clear  and  well  defined,  and  every  part 
of  either  style  is  as  perfect  as  the  ingenuity  of  man  can  make  it. 

Those  not  acquainted  with  the  pecnliarity  of  nickel  will 
very  naturally  be  impressed  with  the  idea  that  the  metal  will 
corrode  or  otherwise  lose  its  beauty,  and  is  intrinsically'  worth 
very  little.  The  facts  are  these  :  While  silver  is  more  precious 
than  nickel,  its  value  fcjr  purposes  to  which  nickel  is  applied  is 
not  nearly  so  great.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  nuich  similarity 
in  appearance  of  the  two  metals  when  polished,  and  a  person 
carrying  a  nickel-case  watch  can  readily  deceive  anyone  not 
familiar  with  the  delicate  differences  into  the  belief  that  the 
nickel  is  in  fact  a  silver  case. 

But  there  is  only  a  shade  of  distinction  between  nickel  and 
silver ;  for  in  the  watch  case  the  former  is  far  superior  in  the 
following  respects  :  First,  there  is  infinitely  more  durability  in 
nickel,  because  it  is  twofold  the  harder  metal ;  second,  there  is 
greater  lustre  on  polished  nickel,  which  will  never  become  dim  ; 
and  lastly,  it  is  not  so  liable  to  injury  from  falling,  and  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  deface  it. 

The  works  are  made  as  strong  as  the  cases,  and  so  perfectly 
that  they  can  not  get  out  of  order,  except  by  forcible  means. 
Mr.  Dresser,  who  has  sold  thousands  of  these  watches  in  the 
past  five  or  six  months,  is  so  well  acquainted  with  their 
superiority  over  all  other  watches  in  the  market,  that  after  a 
purchase  of  him  is  made  he  is  ready  to  refund  the  money  at 
any  time  provided  the  watch  fails  to  give  satisfaction.  The 
watches  are  sold  for  ten  dollars  and  delivered  to  any  part  of 
the  country  by  express.  Any  one  from  a  distance  ordering  the 
watch  has  the  privilege  of  opening  the  package  and  examining 
it  before  pajdng  the  C.  O.  D.  collection,  and  if  the  watch  does 
not  come  up  to  expectation,  the  party  to  whom  it  is  addressed 
is  under  no  obligation  to  take  it. 

These  terms  are  made  for  a  twofold  purpose  :  First,  because 
there  are  so  many  swindling  advertisements  in  the  papers, 
such  as  excellent  time-pieces  for  three  dollars,  a  seven-shooter 
revolver  for  two  and  a  half  dollars,  etc.,  sent  to  any  address 
CO.  D.,  all  of  which  are  nothing  more  than  mere  toys  with- 
out any  value,  and  those  knowing  this  fact  presuppose  all  other 


226  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

advertisements  of  cheap  articles  ;  second,  because  the  watches 
are  always  certain  to  give  satisfaction,  and  Mr.  Dresser  can 
therefore  afford  to  allow  an  examination  of  the  express  package 
before  the  money  is  paid. 

Mr.  Dresser  has  added  another  style  of  watch,  which  is 
destined  to  become  very  popular.  The  works  are  of  the 
reliable  Waltham  manufjicture,  and  the  cases  are  gold-plate, 
of  beautiful  design,  and  as  good  in  every  sense  as  the  most 
costly  gold  watch.  They  are  made  both  open  and  double  case, 
and  sold  at  the  wonderfully  low  price  of  eighteen  dollars,  and 
every  watch  is  warranted  for  one  year. 

Mr.  Dresser  also  deals  in  handsome  nickel  chains,  which  he 
sells  at  prices  ranging  from  one  to  three  dollars,  and  fine  rolled 
gold-plate  at  from  three  and  a  half  to  eight  dollars.  By  calling 
or  writing  to  No.  305  North  Seventh  Street,  you  can  meet 
with  the  Surprise  foretold,  and  find  the  finest,  best  and  cheapest 
watches  ever  put  upon  this  or  any  other  market. 


THOMPSON,  TEASDALE  &  CO.— Woolens  and 
Wool  Yarns. 

Six  years  ago  the  firm  of  Thompson,  Teasdale  &  Co.  was 
established  at  No.  312  North  Main  Street,  for  handlinir  on 
commission,  woolens  and  wool  yarns.  The  house  was  a 
recognized  necessity,  and  the  ability  with  which  the  business 
has  been  conducted  secured  a  large  trade  for  the  firm, 
which  has  been  constantly  increasing  ever  since.  Another 
important  branch  of  the  business  is  dealing  in  manufacturers' 
supplies,  machinery,  cotton  warps,  dye  stuffs,  etc.,  in  which 
line  this  is  the  only  house  in  St.  Louis,  but  since  it  fills  the 
wants  of  customers  most  satisfactorily,  there  is  no  opportunity 
for  competition. 


JEWELRY. 

THE  JACCARD  BUILDING. 


227 


The  above  illustration  represents  the  Jaccard  Building,  on 
the  northeast  corner  of  Fifth  and  Olive  streets,  erected  and 
occupied  by  Eugene  Jaccard  &  Co.,  the  oldest  business  firm  in 
the  city,  being  established  since  1829,  and  the  largest  jewelry 
house  in  the  West.  Besides  the  spacious  sales-room  on  the 
first  floor,  which  has  a  frontage  of  fifty-seven  feet  on  Fifth 
Street,  and  is  furnished  with  marble  counters  and  richly  carved 
walnut  and  French  plate-glass  cases,  they  have  fitted  up  their 
basement  in  elegant  style  for  the  better  display  of  their  exten- 
sive stock  of  real  and  imitation  bronzes,  Parian  marble  stat- 
uary, French  clocks,  and  other  articles  of  an  artistic  character. 
There  will  also  be  found  in  addition  to  the  above,  a  line  of 
novelties,  such  as  artistic  pottery,  choice  selected  pieces  of 
Limoges,  Gien,  Longwy,  and    other  French    Faience    Royal 


228  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Worcester,  Copcland,  Minton  and  Wedgewood  porcelain  and 
Majolica  ware,  Dresden  porcelain,  etc.  ;  very  beautiful  Vienna 
gilt  goods,  brass  finished  bronze  goods,  etc.  ;  no  such  complete 
assortment  is  kept  by  any  other  house  in  the  city.  This 
establishment  is  one  of  the  attractions  of  the  city,  and  will 
amply  repay  a  visit. 


MARCUS  A.  WOLFF  &  CO.— Real  Estate. 

No  record  for  industry  and  enterprise  in  this  city  can  be 
found  to  exceed  that  which  has  been  made  by  this  firm, 
located  at  No.  316  Chestnut  Street.  Mr.  WolflT,  the  senior 
member,  has  been  its  moving  spirit  and  the  chief  cause  of  the 
success  that  may  be  attributed  to  it.  The  management  of 
large  estates,  the  placing  of  loans  upon  property,  and  the 
collection  of  rents,  are  the  prominent  characteristics  of  their 
business. 

Some  four  thousand  tenants  pay  rentals  to  this  firm  for 
the  occupancy  of  stores,  shops,  dwellings  and  apartments  that 
have  been  placed  by  landlords  in  their  hands  to  collect. 

The  dual  relation  they  sustain  to  both  the  owner  and  the 
tenant,  calls  for  the  best  of  business  talent,  and  for  the  most 
affable  manners.  The  extent  of  their  operations  fully  attest 
their  ability  and  popularity. 

M.  A.  Wolff  &  Co.  do  the  largest  real  estate  business  in 
the  city.     Their  transactions  at  times  involve  very  large  sums. 

Mr.  Wolfi*  has  occupied  some  very  important  and  respon- 
sible positions  in  the  management  and  settlement  of  estates 
committed  to  his  care,  and  his  promptness  and  fidelity  attest 
the  confidence  reposed  in  him  by  some  of  our  best  citizens. 


MANUFACTURING . 


229 


H.  &  L.  CHASE.— Bags  and  Bagging. 

One  of  the  comparatively  now  industries  of  the  West 
which  has  given  St.  Louis  an  impetus  in  the  extension  of  her 
commercial  supremacy,  is  the  manufacture  of  bags,  l)urla[)s 
and  bagging.  While  this  interest  employs  more  largely  the 
India  jute,  yet  it  uses  an  immense  quantity  of  home  pro- 
ductions, such  as  cotton,  hemp,  flax,  etc.,  which  of  itself  has 
materially  stimulated  the  cultivation  of  these  crops,  and  given 
employment  to  a  large  number  of  persons. 


The  representative  bagging  factory  and  tirni  of  St.  Louis, 
and,  indeed,  of  America,  is  that  of  H.  &  L.  Chase,  whose 
house  occupies  Nos.  8,  10  and  12  North  Main  Street.  The 
parent  factory  is  in  Boston,  where  it  was  established  in  1845, 
and  has  been  doing  an  immense  business  ever  since.  The  St. 
Louis  branch  of  H.  &  L.  Chase  was  founded  in  1866,  at  No. 
14  South  Commercial,  where  it  remained  a  few  years,  when,  in 
order  to  secure  the  much-needed  additional  room,  they  removed 


230  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

to  No.  1  South  Main  Street,  then  to  No.  17  North  Main.  Their 
business  increased  at  a  surprisingly  rapid  rate,  and  soon  out- 
grew the  capacity  of  their  second  and  third  houses,  and,  in 
1872,  they  removed  into  their  present  large  building,  where 
they  have  the  necessary  room  for  their  office,  factory  and  ware- 
house. This  structure  is  six  stories  in  height  and  has  an  area 
on  its  several  floors  of  nearly  forty  thousand  feet.  The  factory 
is  run  by  a  fifteen  horse-power  engine,  which  supplies  the 
power  for  running  the  machinery,  the  elevators  and  printing 
presses.  It  employs  eighty  operatives  and  turns  out  annually 
millions  of  bags.  In  addition  to  the  manufacture  of  bags  of 
all  kinds,  including  flour,  ham  bags,  ore  bags,  burlaps,  wool 
sacks,  gunnies,  seamless,  flax  twine,  etc.,  the  firm  gives  special 
attention  to  the  printing  of  flour  sacks,  in  which  business  their 
facilities  are  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  those  of  any  similar 
firm  in  America. 

H.  &  L.  Chase  have  branch  houses-  also  in  Chicago  and 
Kansas  City,  but  the  St.  Louis  branch  is  the  largest  of  the 
concerns,  save  that  of  the  parent  Boston  house,  which  is  the 
largest  institution  of  the  kind  in  the  United  States.  The 
business  was  established  here  and  has  since  been  -conducted 
by  F.  H.  Ludington,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  of  practical  ideas  and 
actuated  by  unlimited  enterprise — the  push  and  vigor  which 
establishes  success  where  a  thousand  others  would  fail.  He 
is  devoted  to  the  duties  of  his  position,  and  uses  every  honor- 
able means  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  firm,  and  with  what 
results  is  best  told  by  the  immense  business  of  the  branch  he 
represents :  the  hum  of  ceaseless  machinery,  activity  of  the 
numerous  employees,  extent  of  the  trade,  and  the  many 
evidences  of  the  greatest  prosperity  noticeable  in  every  avenue 
and  nook  of  the  establishment. 


MANUFACTURING.  231 

THE  EXCELSIOR  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

St.  Louis  has  been,  for  several  years,  recognized  as  the 
great  stove  manufacturing  city  of  America  ;  her  proximity  to 
the  hirgest  iron  beds  in  the  workl ;  situated  upon  a  mighty 
river,  which  courses  to  the  sea,  and  withal  being  a  focal 
point  for  the  trade  of  a  new  and  thriving  empire,  enterprise 


was  compelled  to  grasp  these  natural  advantages  and  make 
her  the  manufacturing  city  of  the  continent.  The  progress 
of  our  factories  has  been  made  in  the  path  of  tlie  pioneers  ; 
after  rearing  their  rude  habitations  as  a  mere  ^jroteclion  from 
the  most  unldnd  elements,  the  sturdy  yeoman  tiieu  turn  their 
thoughts  to  the  more  accessible  comforts,  and   among  their 


232  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

first  wants  is  a  cooking  stove.  It  was  these  well  known  char- 
acteristics that  caused  sucli  earlj  attention  to  the  manufacture 
of  stoves  in  this  city,  and  the  rapid  settlement  of  the  West 
has  created  a  demand,  to  supply  which  several  large  foundries 
have  been  established  here.  With  the  increase  of  foundries 
rivalry  began,  which  caused  a  development  of  the  industry 
most  wholesome  to  the  public  and  satisfactory  to  the  best 
companies. 

In  selecting  only  the  representative  institutions  of  St. 
Louis,  in  their  respective  lines  of  business,  the  Excelsior 
Stove  Manufacturing  Company  must  head  the  list  of  that 
industry,  not  merely  above  all  others  in  the  West,  but  so  far 
in  advance  thatany  comparison  would  be  invidious  and  unjust, 
for  it  now  ranks  as  one  of  the  largest  and  most  successful 
stove  companies  in  the  world. 

The  foundation  of  the  business  of  the  Excelsior  Manufac- 
turing Company  was  laid  by  Giles  F.  Filley,  in  the  early  part 
of  1849,  the  year  of  the  great  fire  and  the  cholera  scourge. 
The  foundry  was  located  where  it  still  stands,  but  was  a  small 
affair  compared  with  what  it  is  now,  although  for  that  time  it 
was  regarded  as  an  immense  institution,  employing  thirty 
workmen,  and  turninoj  out  eio-ht  thousand  stoves.  In  1852, 
Mr.  Filley  patented  the  Charter  Oak  stove,  which  was  then  so 
far  superior  to  any  stove  ever  made  in  this  country,  that  the 
great  demand  for  it  gave  an  immense  impetus  to  the  busi- 
ness, two  thousand  six  hundred  and  nineteen  Charter  Oaks 
being  sold  the  same  year,  and  in  the  following  j^ear,  1853,  an 
enlargement  of  the  foundry  was  made.  Three  years  later  two 
additional  mouldinjj  floors  were  added,  makins;  five  in  all,  with 
a  capacity  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  stoves  j^er  day. 

In  1874,  the  office  and  sales-room  of  Mr.  Filley  was  moved 
from  the  old  building  into  a  new  edifice  erected  that  year, 
including  Nos.  612,  614,  616  and  618  North  Main.  This 
buildinoj  is  one  of  the  most  maornificent  structures  in  the 
West,  and  is  a  representative  monument  of  the  great  business 
it  was  built  for.  It  has  a  frontage  on  Main  Street  of  eighty- 
four  feet,  five  stories  in  height,  and  a  depth  of  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  feet,  running  through  to  Commercial  Alley,  six 
stories  in  heisrht.     The  office  and  sales-room  is  on  the  first 


MANtrFACTURING. 


233 


floor,  which  is  beautifully  lisrhtcd,  is  eiijhtceu  feet  in  heif^ht 
and  filled  with  the  finest  display  of  stoves  and  tinware  to  be 
found  in  America.  The  aggregate  floor  space  iu  the  building 
is  equal  to  one  and  one-half  acres,  on  whii'h  there  is  displayed 
over  two  hundred  and  fifty  difterent  varieties  of  heating  and 
cooking  stoves,  and  every  conceivable  article  of  culinary  use. 
On  the  1st  of  January,  1865,  the  Excelsior  Manufacturing 
Company  was  incorporated  as  a  successor  of  Giles  F.  Filley, 
with  Mr.  Filley  as  President,  a  position  he  continues  to  hold. 
Since  the  organization  of  the  new  company,  Mr.  Filley  has 


directed  several  important  improvements,  and  given  to  the 
manufacturing  department  a  management  almost  unequaled. 
The  foundry,  located  in  the  northern  part  of  the  city,  covers 
four  and  one-half  acres  of  ground,  and  gives  employment  to 
over  three  hundred  and  fifty  men,  yet  large  as  this  force  is, 
and  stringent  as  the  times  have  been  during  the  past  five  years, 
the  Excelsior  Company  has  not  discharged  a  man  nor  dimin- 
ished their  production,  which  reaches  fifty  thousand  stoves 
annually.  They  melt,  on  an  average,  forty  tons  of  metal  per 
day,  which  is  more  than  the  consumption  of  any  otlier  stove 
foundry  in  the  United  States. 


234  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  total  number  of  stoves  made  since  the  works  were 
established  is  over  750,000,  of  which  number  there  were  sold 
313,650  Charter  Oaks  up  to  May  1,  1878. 

To  speak  of  the  Charter  Oak  in  mere  terms  of  com- 
mendation does  not  present  its  merits  in  an  understanding 
manner,  for  it  has  attained  a  position  in  the  Mississippi  Valley 
of  such  great  popularity  that  its  vast  superiority  is  acknowl- 
edged and  tlie  good  points  of  other  stoves  are  discussed  only 
relatively  and  by  comparison  with  the  Charter  Oak.  A  num- 
ber of  shipments  of  these  stoves  have  been  made  to  Europe 
and  other  foreign  countries,  and  are  in  use  in  every  State  and 
Territory  of  America.  Its  superior  excellence  consists  in  the 
admirable  workmanship  and  prime  quality  of  material  used 
in  its  construction ;  perfect  draft,  cleanliness,  line  baking 
qualities,  durability,  and  handsome  appearance. 

The  Excelsior  Manufacturing  Company,  while  making  a 
specialty  of  the  Charter  Oak  cooking  stove,  are  large  manu- 
facturers of  heating  stoves,  some  of  which  have  already 
attained  a  remarkable  popularity. 

The  Evening  Star  has  been  sold  for  the  past  twenty  years, 
and  is  a  beautiful  pattern  for  a  wood-burning  stove,  is 
economic,  and  gives  the  most  perfect  satisfaction.  But  the 
styles  and  merits  of  the  large  number  of  different  stoves  made 
by  this  indeed  Excelsior  Company,  can  not  be  given  in  a  neces- 
sarily short  review  of  our  representative  industries,  and  our 
advice  to  the  readers  of  a  "  Tour  of  St-  Louis,"  can  therefore 
only  be  couched  in  a  request  to  visit  the  sales-room  of  the 
company  and  make  an  inspection  of  the  stock  there  exhibited, 
which  can  not  prove  otherwise  than  interesting,  even  should 
no  purchases  be  desired. 


I 


MANUFACTURING. 


235 


ST.  LOUIS  STAMPING  CO.— Granite  Iron-Ware. 

The  St.  Louis  Stamping  Company  is  not  only  a  represent- 
ative interest  of  our  own  city  but  of  the  United  States,  having 
outgrown  the  boundaries  of  an  ordinary  reputation,  and  since 
the  manufacture  of  that  famed  article  of  household  use. 
Granite  Iron-ware,  the  compan}^  in  its  great  labors  has 
leaped  the  confines  of  the  country  and  founded  a  trade  across 
the  ocean,  which  is  swelling  at  a  rapid  rate. 

The  Niedringhaus  Brothers  were  organized  as  a  company 
in  the  year  1860,  for  the  manufacture  of  tinware,  with  an 
original  capital  of  one 
thousand  dollars,  loca- 
ting their  factory  on  the 
corner  of  Tenth  St.  and 
Franklin  Avenue,  where 
they  employed  only  three 
hands.  In  the  year  1866 
the  name  of  the  organi- 
zation was  changed  to  the 
St.  Louis  Stamping  Com- 
pany.  Stam p e d  tin  ware 
was  then  a  new  thing,  but 
it  commended  itself  so 
highly,  being  cheaper, 
having  no  soldered  seams,  and 
found  immediate  favor  with  the 
sales  increased — the  first  year  reaching  seven  thousand  dollars 
— and  the  capacity  of  the  factory  was  increased  in  })roi)ortiou 
to  the  demand. 

The  first  location  was  such  that  the  compau}^  were  unable 
to  make  the  improvements  necessary  for  their  business,  and 
compelled  them  to  move,  a  favorable  site  for  the  requisite 
buildinjis  beins:  found  on  the  corner  of  Second  and  Cass 
Avenue.  Here  they  erected  a  four-story  brick  building,  occu- 
pyino-  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  block,  and  a  large  Avarehouse  on 
Main  and  Cass  Avenue. 

In  the  year  1876,  F.  G.  Niedringhaus,  President  of  the 
company,  secured    letters  patent  on    a    process    for   making 


much    more    durable,  that  it 
public.      Year    by    year    the 


236  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

granite  iron-ware,  one  of  the  most  useful  inventions  for  house- 
hold convenience  ever  discovered.  Immediately  thereafter 
machinery  was  added  for  plating  all  their  stamped  ware  with 
granite,  since  which  time  granite  iron-ware  has  become  one  of 
the  indispensable  adjuncts  of  every  household.  So  great  was 
the  demand  for  this  standard  article  that  a  new  and  larger 
building  became  necessary,  and  in  March  last  was  completed 
for  the  company  one  of  the  finest  factories  in  the  city,  being 
five  stories  in  heiijht  and  coverina;  three-fourths  of  a  block. 
The  entire  works  of  the  St.  Louis  Stamping  Company  now 
occupy  two  entire  blocks,  employ  four  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
work  up  annually  five  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  iron  and  four 
hundred  tons  of  tin,  and  their  sales  have  increased  from  seven 
thousand  dollars  the  first  year  to  seven  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  the  year  1877,  with  a  corresponding  increase  for  the 
year  1878. 

The  granite  iron-ware  is  now  not  only  sold  in  every  hamlet 
and  city  in  the  United  States,  but  also  in  England,  Germany, 
France,  South  America,  West  Indies,  and,  in  fact,  almost 
throughout  the  civilized  portion  of  the  world.  Patents  on  the 
process  for  its  manufacture  have  been  secured  in  nearly  all  the 
countries  of  Europe,  and  granite  iron-ware  will  shortly  be  man- 
ufactured in  all  the  important  cities  of  that  country. 

A  word  concerning  the  ware  itself  is  important  in  this  con- 
nection, although  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  its  great  merits  are 
known  to  almost  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  America. 
Granite  iron-ware  has  been  submitted  to  the  crucible  test  and 
analysis  of  every  chemist  of  any  note  in  the  United  States,  and 
their  reports  all  agree  that  granite  iron-ware  has  no  delete- 
rious substance  whatever  about  its  composition,  the  granite 
coating  being  nothing  more  than  an  ordinary  granite  fused  to 
a  glass  upon  the  iron  vessel. 

As  to  its  superiority  over  any  other  ware  in  use,  it  may  be 
positively  asserted  that  any  comparison  would  be  invidious. 
Granite  iron-ware,  aside  of  its  beauty,  which  is  really  a  great 
feature  in  its  favor,  is  indestructible  either  by  fire  or  rough 
usage  ;  it  will  endure  constant  use  for  a  life-time,  is  not  sub- 
ject to  rust  or  corrosion,  and  will  not  change  the  slightest  in 
any  service  it  may  be  put  to.     Its  first  cost  is  but  little  above 


MANUFACTURING.  237 

the  ordinary  tin  or  iron  vessels,  and  for  constant  use  it  is  more 
than  a  hundred-fold  clieaper.  Wherever  exhibited  in  compe- 
tition with  other  wares,  at  the  Centennial  Exposition  and  all 
the  State  fairs,  it  has  invariably  been  awarded  the  first 
premium,  and  every  3^ear  must  only  serve  to  make  its  irreat 
superiority  and  invaluable  properties  the  more  universally  ac- 
knowledo;ed  in  all  countries  on  the  elobe. 


ST.  LOUIS  MANTEL  AND  GRATE  COMPANY. 

Marble,  cold  but  chaste,  has  done  much  towards  softening 
and  refining  the  manners  of  civilized  nations.  Even  in  the  days 
of  the  old  jorimeval  sculptors,  whose  first  touches  kindled  a  new 
life,  dumb,  yet  full  of  spirit,  there  was  a  strong  pervadino^ 
influence  of  a  new  culture  and  the  awakening  of  an  attribute 
that  had  before  remained  unknoAvn.  Angelo  and  his  famous 
school  aroused  the  world  and  pointed  to  a  destiny  now  almost 
consummated  ;  the  seeds  thus  sown  have  borne  fruit  unto  all 
people,  and  civilization  is  writing  its  inspiring  history  on  tablets 
of  marble,  perpetuating  it  as  were  the  first  laws  given  to  man. 

In  our  own  country  sculpturing  and  work  in  marble  has 
attained  a  high  state  of  perfection  ;  the  advance  has  been  so 
remarkable,  indeed,  that  while  Rome  may  repose  in  the  bliss- 
ful realization  of  her  conquests  and  conception  of  the  highest 
embodiment  of  the  fine  arts,  yet  it  was  reserved  for  us  to  live 
in  the  marble  age  and  see  her  finest  arts  vastl}-^  improved. 
Amono;  the  jxreat  institutions  of  St.  Louis  to  which  wc  refer 
with  the  most  exultant  pride,  is  the  St.  Louis  Mantel  and  Grate 
Company,  which  has  brought  the  West  to  an  understanding  of 
the  beauties  of  marble  in  the  rich  and  yet  expenseloss  adorn- 
ment of  our  homes  ;  a  company  that  has  carved  a  reputation 
in  stone  which  is  fast  finding  a  lodgment  at  our  lirosidos  and 
imparthig  a  happier  spirit  and  influence  upon  our  social  lives. 

The  company  is  an  old  one,  but  moved  into  its  new  building 
in  September  last.  A  larger  portion  of  their  Avork  is  done  at 
several  branch  yards  more  convenient  to  the  stone  used,  though 


238  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  parent  sales-room  and  yard  is  located  at  No.  24  South 
Eleventh  Street,  this  city.  While  the  firm  deals  in  iron  and 
slate  mantels,  their  great  specialty  is  marble,  in  which  line  of 
goods  they  have  distanced  all  competition  in  the  West,  both  in 
price  and  elegance  of  workmanship.  In  this  connection  it  is 
important  to  disabuse  the  public  mind  of  the  idea  that  marble 
mantels  are  expensive.  This  belief  was  at  one  time  founded 
on  fact,  but  with  the  universal  reduction  on  the  price  of  build- 
ing materials,  marble  mantels  have  declined  proportionately 
until  the  old  belief,  which,  for  some  strange  reason,  still  ob- 
tains, is  a  popular  fallacy.  Marble  mantels  are  not  only  inex- 
pensive, but,  beautiful  as  they  are,  they  are  cheaper  than 
wooden  ones.  A  good  wood  mantel,  including  grate,  fender 
and  summer  piece,  set  in  place,  will  cost  about  eighteen  dollars, 
while  a  fine  marble  mantel,  solid  and  attractive,  accompanied 
by  all  the  fireside  auxiliaries,  set  in  place  ready  for  fire,  costs 
but  twenty  dollars.  This  price  is  made  by  the  St.  Louis 
Mantel  and  Grate  Company,  and  of  course  is  about  fifteen  per 
cent,  lower  than  the  same  articles  could  be  purchased  elsewhere 
in  the  city,  for  this  company  has  such  superior  facilities  for 
manufacturing  marble  goods  that  they  can  afford  to  sell  much 
lower  than  their  competitors  and  yet  make  a  reasonable  profit. 

The  samples  of  mantels  and  grates  displayed  by  this  com- 
pany at  their  sales-room,  is  one  of  the  finest  sights  to  be  wit- 
nessed in  St.  Louis.  The  room  is  about  one  hundred  feet  deep 
by  forty  feet  wide,  and  on  both  sides,  as  well  also  as  running  in 
a  double  row  down  the  center  of  the  room,  is  a  variety  of 
mantels  which  excites  the  greatest  admiration  for  the  ingenuity 
of  man.  There  are  mantels  for  the  humble  cottage  in  keeping 
with  modest  possession,  and  up  through  all  the  gradations  of 
wealth  to  the  palaces  of  the  over-rich.  By  these  the  fireside 
becomes  a  witching  chamber,  with  its  graceful  arching,  beau- 
tiful columns,  decorated  balustrade,  rich  carvings  and  halo- 
surrounded  aperture,  out  of  which  we  almost  expect  to  see 
appear  some  child  of  imagery,  with  gossamer  wand,  to  effect  a 
transformation  that  shall  make  the  surroundings  equally  beau- 
tiful. 

In  addition  to  their  specialty  of  marble  mantels,  the  com- 
pany manufactures  enameled  grates  and  the  celebrated  ' '  Star ' ' 


I 


MANLn^\CTURING.  239 

cooking  ranges,  and  are  the  sole  agents  in  St.  Lonis  for 
Minton's  Enijlish  encaustic  tiles  and  Bibb's  original  Baltimore 
fireplace  heaters.  The  officers  of  the  corporation  are  :  S. 
Hand,  Presid(Mit,  who  is  an  old  dealer  and  successful  manufac- 
turer of  marble  goods  ;  C.  E.  Hand,  Secretary,  a  young  man 
of  excellent  business  qualifications  ;  and  D.  C.  Deegan,  who  is 
one  of  the  best  practical  cutters  in  the  West,  Superintendent. 
These  gentlemen  have  combined  a  large  experience  with  an 
abundant  capital,  and  having  extraordinary  facilities,  can 
manufacture  and  sell  their  goods  at  a  great  reduction  under 
the  prices  charged  by  competing  yards. 


ST.  LOUIS  HOT-PRESSED  NUT  AND  BOLT 
MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

In  making  a  tour  of  the  metropolis  of  the  West,  among 
the  more  important  industries,  there  is  no  factory  of  greater 
interest  than  that  of  the  St.  Louis  Hot-Pressed  Nut  and  Bolt 
Manufactory.  The  man  whose  genius  invented  the  machines 
used  by  this  company  in  the  manufacture  of  hot-pressed 
nuts  and  washers,  was  Richard  H.  Cole,  Esq.,  who  for  many 
years  before  followed  the  humble,  but  no  less  honorable,  trade 
of  a  blacksmith.  His  shop  was  located  on  Main  Street, 
between  Ashley  Street  and  Cass  Avenue,  where  he  conceived 
and  perfected  his  great  invention. 

Mr.  Cole  had  no  difficulty  in  securing  the  requisite  capital 
for  constructin2:  an  extensive  establishment  on  Biddle  Street, 
between  Second  and  Collins  streets,  where  several  of  his 
machines  were  put  into  operation.  The  fame  of  the  inventor 
and  invention  soon  spread  over  the  continent,  and  in  a  short 
time  a  large  demand  was  made  upon  Mr.  Cole  for  territorial 
rights,  and  orders  were  sent  in  for  the  machines  from  various 
sections  in  the  East,  and  also  from  several  countries  of  Europe, 
to  which  places  machines  were  sent  and  have  been  working 
constantly  ever  since. 

On  January  1,  1874,  the  establishment  erected  by  Mr. 
Cole    was    purchased   by  the    present    owners    who    at    once 


240  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

organized  the  St.  Louis  Hot-Pressed  Nut  and  Bolt  Company, 
with  Wm.  H.  Stone  as  President ;  O.  Breden,  Superintendent ; 
and  A.  W.  Duryee  as  Secretary.  The  company  has  since 
made  large  improvements,  both  in  the  buildings  and  additional 
machinery  ;  among  the  latter,  being  improved  bolt-heading 
machines,  with  supplementary  machines  for  pointing  and  cutting 
screws  and  tapping  nuts  ;  also  a  machine  for  manufacturing 
horseshoes,  which  works  with  lightning  rapidity,  completing 
a  horseshoe  ready  for  use,  from  the  bar,  at  a  single  revolution, 
more  uniform  than  can  be  made  by  hand. 

The  most  interesting  machines  in  the  establishment  are 
those  used  for  forging  horseshoe  nails,  the  operation  of  which 
is  very  simple  and  yet  curious.  The  Norway  nail  rods  are 
heated  and  fed  into  the  machine,  which  cuts,  the  rod  the 
reqnired  length  of  a  nail ;  these  pieces  then  travel  around  a 
circuhir  anvil  under  a  ponderous  steam-hammer.  By  the  time 
the  circuit  is  completed,  each  nail  receives  thirty-two  blows 
from  the  hammer  and  then  drops  into  a  basket  completed  for 
use,  with  the  exception  of  pointing  and  polishing,  which  is 
done  by  other  machines  for  that  purpose. 

The  Norway  hammered  horseshoe  nails  manufactured  by 
this  company  are  meeting  with  an  unprecedented  demand,  and 
are  fast  supplanting  all  others  on  account  of  their  similarity  to 
hand-made  nails.  The  articles  manufactured  by  the  company 
comprise  hot-pressed  nuts,  bolts,  washers,  Breden's  horseshoes, 
Norway  hammered  horseshoe  nails,  etc.,  and  their  trade 
extends  over  the  territory  bounded  by  the  Mississippi  River 
and  Pacific  coast. 


THE  WESTERN  OIL  COMP.INY. 

The  manufacture  of  oils  is  an  important  industry  in  the 
West,  being  stimulated  by  the  immense  hog  and  cattle  pro- 
duct, which  seeks  St.  Louis  as  its  most  direct  and  natural 
market,  where  the  packing  and  rendering  interest  is  one  of 
the  special  features  of  Western  commerce.  In  the  manufac- 
ture of  oils  we  have  several  large  institutions,  but  the  largest 


MANUFACTURING.  241 

and  most  representative  of  its  class  is  the  Western  Oil  Com- 
pany. This  organization  was  established  in  18G7,  occupying 
small  quarters  on  the  corner  of  Second  and  Vine  streets,  in  a 
building  known  in  former  years  as  King's  Hotel.  Here  they 
continued  until  the  following  year,  when  the  rapid  increase  of 
their  business  compelled  them  to  move  into  a  larger  building, 
which  they  found  on  the  corner  of  Third  Street  and  Wash- 
ington Avenue.  In  1870,  the  same  causes  compelled  them  to 
a  second  removal,  their  next  location,  being  on  the  corner  of 
Main  and  Washington  Avenue.  Here  they  remained  until  a 
third  time  their  business  had  outgrown  the  capacity  of  their 
building,  and  in  1873,  the  company  removed  to  its  present 
quarters  Nos.  812  and  814  North  Main  Street,  where  they  have 
an  immense  factory  for  the  manufacture  of  all  kinds  of  animal 
oils,  also  dark  and  light  colored  engine  oils,  West  Virginia 
oils,  burning  oils,  wagon  axle  grease,  lard  and  tallow  oils,  and 
all  grades  of  lubricating  oils.  The  company  has  branch 
houses  for  the  sale  of  their  large  product  in  New  Orleans  and 
San  Francisco,  and  the  demand,  coming  as  it  does  from  every 
section  of  the  great  West,  is  so  great  that  their  factory  facili- 
ties will  soon  have  to  be  largely  extended,  orders  for  their 
oils,  w^hich  are  now  recognized  as  "  standards,"  being  already 
in  excess  of  their  supply.  Their  principal  demand  is  from 
railroad  companies  and  factories,  for  lubricating  purposes,  and 
their  oils  are  regarded  bv  the  trade  as  the  finest  and  of  the 
purest  quality  ever  put  upon  the  market.  Their  "  Lone  Star" 
burning  oil  is  as  clear  as  crystal  and  as  safe  as  lard  oil,  gener- 
ating no  gas  and  giving  a  light  equal  to  nineteen  and  a  half 
candle  power.  Their  brands  are  found  all  over  the  United 
States,  and  are  everywhere  not  only  regarded  as  the  best,  but 
of  so  superior  quality  as  to  prove  an  effective  advertisement 
of  St.  Louis  industries. 

The  officers  of  the  company  are  :  D.  L.  Skidmore,  Presi- 
dent, and  C.  C.  Harris,  Secretary,  and  the  office  is  at  No.  305 
North  Third  Street,  conveniently  arranged  and  located  for  the 
business  transactions  of  the  company. 


16 


MANUFACTURING.  243 

COLLIER  WHITE  LEAD  AND  OIL  WORKS. 

In  presenting  a  summarized  history  of  the  Collier  White 
Lead  and  Oil  Works,  their  capacity,  importance  and  influence, 
it  is  eminently  proper  to  notice,  at  least,  the  promi)tings  of 
their  founder  and  the  natural  adyantages — the  fultillnient  of 
the  predictions  made  years  ago — no%v  offered  by  the  opening 
of  lead  mines  within  our  own  territory,  the  largest  in  the 
world. 

The  establishment  of  a  factory  for  the  manufacture  of 
white  lead  in  St.  Louis,  in  the  empirical  period  of  1837,  at  a 
time  when  our  city  was  but  a  footprint  upon  the  continent,  and 
with  no  commercial  path  saye  that  of  the  great  arterial  high- 
way which  then  swept  the  feet  of  a  callow  town  ;  when  the 
coal,  lead,  iron  and  zinc  beds  of  our  neighborhood  had  been 
undisturbed,  with  the  giant  force  which  they  liaye  since 
impelled  still  in  profound  slumber — with  such  crude  and 
undefined  possibilities,  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution 
was  accompanied  by  great  uncertainty  of  success.  But  when 
Henry  T.  Blow  organized  his  company  in  1850,  he  was  guided 
by  his  prophetic  foresight,  which  penetrated  theyista  of  years, 
and  saw  St.  Louis  as  a  queen  upon  the  throne,  with  sceptre  in 
her  hand,  and  the  collected  wealth  of  an  empire  at  her  feet; 
the  jagged  cupolas  of  her  factories  raising  like  a  thousand 
giants,  ui3lifting  their  brawny  arms,  grasping  the  trade  of  a 
continent,  and  looked  upon  her  million  people  with  an  enthu- 
siasm akin  to  inspiration.  Such  was  the  beautiful  panorama 
that  floated  as  a  yision  before  his  gaze  and  prompted  Mr.  Blow 
to  labor  by  "  the  light  of  the  future." 

The  manufacture  of  white  lead  was  first  begun  in  St.  Louis 
by  Dr.  Reed,  who  operated  on  a  yery  small  scale,  but  whose 
works  were  the  inception  of  the  Collier  White  Lead  Company. 
Henry  T.  Blow  and  his  brother-in-law,  Joseph  Charles,  Inid 
been  for  some  years  manufacturing  white  lead  in  connection 
with  their  drug  business,  and  in  1844  Mr.  Blow  disposed  of 
his  interest  in  the  drug  store  and  gaye  his  exclusiye  attention 
to  the  running  of  his  white  lead  works.  His  business  increased, 
and,  in  1850,  in  order  to  secure  a  proper  enlargement  of  the 
factory,  he  organized  a  stock  company,  which  was,  and  is  still 


244  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

called,  the  Collier  White  Lead  and  Oil  Company.  Mr.  Blow 
became  its  President,  and  continued  in  that  position  until  the 
year  1861,  when  he  entered  public  life,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Col.  Thomas  Eicheson,  who  has  continued  its  chief  executive 
officer  ever  since. 

From  what  was  a  comparatively  small  institution  in  1861, 
the  Collier  Works  have  increased,  until  they  are  now,  not 
only  the  largest  in  the  West,  but,  perhaps,  the  largest  in  the 
United  States,  covering  nearly  two  blocks  of  ground,  em- 
ploying one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and  turning  out  annually 
4,000  tons  of  white  lead  ground  in  oil,  200,000  pounds  red 
lead,  150,000  gallons  linseed  oil,  and  150,000  gallons  castor 
oil.  While  the  capital  stock  of  the  company  is  but  $700,000 
their  sales  now  aggregate  $2,000,000,  and  are  rapidly  in- 
creasing. 

There  is  a  reason  for  the  almost  unparalleled  success  of  the 
Collier  Works  aside  even  of  the  wise  policy  and  executive 
ability  by  which  they  have  been  controlled,  which  it  is  im- 
portant to  express  in  this  connection.  St.  Louis  is  in  a  doubly- 
blessed  position — with  more  navigable  water  at  her  door  than 
any  other  city  on  the  globe,  which  cheapen  and  accelerate  her 
transportation  facilities  ;  planted  in  the  basin  of  the  continent, 
with  her  arms  resting  upon  the  inexhaustible  beds  of  the 
richest  and  most  valuable  of  commercial  minerals  in  the  world, 
and  being  the  great  distributing  point  for  the  materials  which 
are  employed  in  the  rapid  building  up  of  the  West, — surely 
nature  and  enterprise  have  united  to  make  her  configuration 
and  advantages  the  grandest  ever  conceived  by  man.  In  the 
relation  of  these  natural  interests,  which  give  to  St.  Louis 
such  a  preponderation  over  the  other  cities  of  the  hemispheres, 
the  manufacture  of  white  lead  and  oil  are  a  consequential 
feature  of  the  West,  in  contradistinction  to  the  demand  in  the 
East,  This  inequality  of  demand  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
development  of  the  East  is  already  accomplished,  or  at  least 
so  far  advanced  that  further  improvement  is  slow,  and  its 
quickening  impulses  are  only  occasioned  by  the  reflexion  of 
Western  interests.  But  here  we  are  a  building  people,  prolific 
with  enterprise  ;  the  great  theatre  of  a  Western  commerce  is 
under  process   of  construction,   labor  and  its  auxiliaries  are 


I 


MANUFACTURING.  245 

therefore  active,  and  home  consumption  is  enormous.  The 
empty  fields  are  not  only  being  covered  Avith  waving  cereals, 
and  the  forests  bending  under  the  strokes  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion, but  buildings  are  being  reared  in  countless  number.  The 
pioneer,  no  lessthanthe  "  down-easter,"  delights  in  thebeautv 
and  comfort  of  his  home  ;  and  Avhile  his  ideas  of  mechanical 
ornamentation  may  not  be  so  extravagant,  j^et  his  use  of  white 
paint  is  certainly  as  great.  These  reasons  sufficiently  account 
for  the  fact  that  one-fourth  of  all  the  white  lead  used  in  the 
United  States  is  made  in  St.  Louis,  and,  with  the  continued 
prosperity  of  the  West,  this  proportion  in  her  favor  will 
increase. 

A  description  of  the  Collier  White  Lead  and  Oil  Works, 
and  the  conversion  of  the  mineral  into  carbonate,  detailins: 
the  various  processes  and  the  means  em^Dloyed,  would  doubtless 
prove  irksome  to  a  large  majority  of  our  readers  who  are  already 
familiar  with  the  minutijB  of  the  business  as  described  in 
previous  publications  ;  but  there  are  two  additions  made  to  the 
establishment,  a  notice  of  which  is  essential  because  their 
introduction  marks  a  new  period  in  the  history  of  white  lead 
manufacture,  and  are  therefore  inseparable  from  the  most 
summary  compendium  of  the  Collier  Works. 

For  many  years  the  laborers  in  white  lead  factories  were 
subjected  to  great  danger  consequent  upon  the  inhalation  of 
small  particles  of  lead,  which,  in  the  grinding  processes,  were 
thrown  off  in  a  fine  dust.  No  man,  of  however  strong  con- 
stitution and  endurance,  could  withstand  the  terrible  eft'ects  of 
the  poison,  and  exposure  for  two  or  three  months  was  sufficient 
to  kill  the  men.  Their  necessary  work  was,  therefore,  only 
accomplished  by  placing  some  protection  over  the  mouth, 
and  even  this  precaution  only  partially  mitigated  the  danger 
and  prolonged  the  inevitable  result.  To  overcome  this  serious 
difficulty  was  a  work  which  had  oftentimes  been  debated  but 
left  without  a  remedy,  until  Mr.  liicheson  took  upon  himself 
the  task  of  effectually  accomplishing  the  desired  resiilts. 
After  some  time  of  patient  study  he  devised  a  remedy  which 
is  not  only  successful  in  protecting  the  workmen  from  every 
particle  of  dust,  but  invented  a  contrivance  which  creates  a 
fitrono-  upward  draft  by  which  means  the  dust  is  sucked  up  and 


246  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

carried  to  another  part  of  the  building,  where  it  is  deposited 
again  in  a  receptable.  From  here  it  is  reconveyed  back  into 
the  mill  and  utilized,  accomplishing  a  sa\^ng  of  one  thousand 
pounds  pure  white  lead  every  twenty-four  hours. 

Another  very  important  invention  in  use  at  the  Collier 
Works  is  the  rotary  steam-drying  table.  By  the  old  process 
it  required  from  seven  to  eight  days  to  dry  the  carbonate, 
which  had  to  be  run  into  larger  iron  basins  and  steamed.  The 
rotary  table  is  a  simple  piece  of  machinery,  and  its  operation 
even  more  simple  than  its  construction.  The  moist  and  drip- 
ping lead  falls  through  a  hopper  on  to  a  flat,  circular  iron 
table,  which  is  kept  revolving  and  heated  by  steam.  There 
are  four  iron  rollers  also  heated,  which  rotate  with  the  table 
and  press  and  spread  the  lead,  so  that  when  the  table  com- 
pletes it  revolution  it  passes  under  a  scraper,  which  pours  the 
now  thoroughly  dried  lead  into  a  receptacle  for  further  use. 
By  this  process,  what  before  required  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  hours,  is  done  in  just  three  and  one-half  minutes. 

The  changes  and  improvements  made  in  the  Collier  Works 
in  1861,  have  been  so  numerous  that  there  is  little  similarity 
between  the  factory  then  and  now.  The  works  are  kept  run- 
ning night  and  day  throughout  the  year,  except  a  stoppage 
regularly  made  from  Saturday  night  to  Monday  morning. 
The  management  of  such  an  immense  institution  must,  of 
necessity,  be  systematic ;  but  the  regularity  and  fixedness 
observable  in  every  department  of  the  factory  is  really 
wonderful ;  so  perfect,  indeed,  that  Mr.  Richeson  is  enabled 
at  any  moment  to  tell  whether  everything  has  been  working 
properly  ;  if  any  stoppage  has  been  made  in  any  department ; 
how  much  lead  is  being  made,  and  if  the  product  falls  short, 
the  reason  why,  and  so  of  every  feature  ;  for  every  step  in  the 
work  is  recorded  in  a  book  reserved  for  that  purpose.  Every- 
thing is  order,  and  bespeaks  a  perfect  management. 

The  products  of  the  Collier  White  Lead  and  Oil  Works 
are  found  in  almost  every  hamlet  of  America  ;  and  their  brand 
known  as  "  prime  white  lead,"  has  a  reputation  for  excellence 
unequaled  by  any  other  made  on  the  continent.  It  is  shipped 
east  and  west,  and,  wherever  used,  is  certain  to  meet  with 
increased  demand.     The  object  of  the  company  is  to  succeed 


i 


MANUFACTURING.  247 

only  by  honorable  competition,  by  numufacturing  an  article  of 
paints  which  will  commend  itself,  and  this  policy  has  not  only 
made  them  famous  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  but  from  coast  to 
coast,  and  every  year  their  facilities  are  increasino-.  The 
Collier  Works  is  an  institution  of  which  St.  Louis  feels  justly 
proud,  and  one  that  has  done  much  towards  the  progress  of 
our  great  city  and  the  development  of  the  immense  mineral 
regions  round  about  our  doors. 


VANE,  CALVERT  &  CO.— Ready-Mixed  Paints. 

The  manufacture  of  ready-mixed  paints  is  a  comparatively 
new  industry,  but  one  which  supplies  such  a  large  necessity 
and  provides  such  an  incalculable  convenience,  that  it  has 
grown  in  a  very  rapid  ratio.  It  requires  little  experience  to 
apply  paint  in  the  ordinarj'  way  in  which  it  is  used,  but  the 
services  of  an  experienced  tradesman  are  necessary  for  the 
proj)er  mixing  of  the  white  lead  and  oil.  It  is  to  prepare  the 
paint  for  immediate  use  that  manufactories  of  this  specialty 
have  been  established,  the  largest  institution  of  the  kind  in 
St.  Louis  being  that  of  Vane,  Calvert  &  Co.,  whose  office  and 
sales-room  are  at  Nos.  705  and  707  North  Main  Street.  This 
firm  was  established  in  1869,  with  plenty  of  cai)ital  to  carry 
the  industry  to  a  state  of  the  greatest  perfection.  Their 
paints  are  made  with  the  most  scrupulous  care,  nothing  but 
jDrime  lead  and  oil  being  used,  and  the  most  skillful  workmen 
employed.  The  consequence  of  this  careful  attention  is  found 
in  the  vast  superiority  of  their  product  and  its  almost  univer- 
sal use  throughout  the  West.  The  great  convenience  which 
these  paints  provide  is  found  in  numerous  nistances  :  to  the 
farmer  who  has  neither  time  nor  the  means  to  secure  a  painter 
to  do  some  necessary  work  which  he  can  do  equally  Avell  at 
inconsiderable  cost  by  ordering  the  ready-mixed  paint  in  color 
and  quantity  ta  suit ;  to  the  townsman  who  has  an  inclination 
to  economize  by  doing  his  own  work  instead  of  calling  in  the 
services  of  a  stranger  ;  to  every  one  who  wishes  to  get  a  better 
paint  at  a  less  price  than  the  lead  and  oil  costs. 


248  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUTS. 

The  paints  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Vane,  Calvert  &  Co., 
besides  being  much  more  durable,  will  cover  one-fourth  more 
surface  than  the  paints  mixed  in  the  ordinary  way  ;  tliey  are 
specially  adapted  to  wall  painting  as  a  substitute  for  paper, 
presenting  a  much  handsomer  appearance,  and  being  eminently 
more  durable,  and  when  soiled  can  be  washed  without  injury. 
The  firm  also  manufactures  a  cheaper  quality  of  paints,  suitable 
for  depot  buildings,  roofs,  and  for  other  like  purposes,  and 
are  sold  at  a  very  low  price. 

Messrs.  Vane,  Calvert  &  Co.  have  introduced  an  eco- 
nomic feature  in  tlie  use  of  paints  which  is  properly  appre- 
ciated by  the  public,  as  their  liberal  patronage  fully  attests. 


L.  M.  RUMSEY  &  CO. — Manufacturers  of  Machinery. 

The  firm  of  L.  M.  Rumsey  &  Co.  is  familiarly  known  in 
every  section  of  the  United  States,  and  it  has  done  more, 
perhaps,  to  advertise  St.  Louis  than  any  other  manufacturing 
institution  we  have.  The  firm  is  composed  of  L.  M.  and 
Moses  Rumsey,  brothers,  who  established  themselves  in  the 
manufacture  of  machinery  as  late  as  1865,  founded,  as  is 
almost  every  great  business,  upon  a  small  capital  footing, 
and  built  up  by  the  sagacity  of  the  proprietors.  The  parent 
factory  of  this  great  house  is  located  at  Seneca  Falls,  New 
York,  where  all  their  fire  engines  and  heavy  machinery  is 
made.  Last  year  they  built  another  large  factory  in  North 
Indianapolis,  where  they  manufacture  scythe  snaths,  grain 
cradles,  and  other  light  agricultural  implements,  and  at  the 
St.  Louis  factory  is  manufactured  lead  pipe,  sheet  and  bar 
lead,  pump  chains  and  chain-pump  material,  and  a  hundred 
other  things  too  tedious  to  mention.  Their  branch  house  here 
covers  an  area  equal  to  an  entire  block,  the  main  building 
including  Nos,  811,  813,  815,  five  stories  in  height,  and  their 
factory  at  No.  816  North  Main,  with  an  immense  warehouse  at 
No.  806  on  Second  Street,  giving  employment  to  sixty  men. 
Their  sales  the  first  year  w^ere  $150,000,  and  for  the  year 
1877  they  aggregated  $1,000,000,  and  every  year  their  facilities 
are  beino;  extended. 


\ij  \l  ,1  \Mh    iiit 


l^asiT  '^Etf  linrti"! 


^♦Cn        /r^    |||(||:i,, 


250  TOUR    OF    ST,    LOUIS. 

Mr.  L.  M.  Rumsey  is  a  practical  mechanic,  and  has 
invented  some  of  the  most  useful  pieces  of  machinery  in  use, 
one  of  which  is  a  machine  for  making  pump  chains.  They 
are  at  once  the  simplest  and  most  expeditious  little  curiosities 
to  be  seen.  Without  any  attention  from  any  one,  these 
machines  turn  out  six  thousand  feet  of  pump  chain  in  every 
ten  hours.  They  manufacture  nothing  on  royalty,  preferring 
to  either  invent  their  own  machinery,  or  buy  the  patents  from 
other  inventors,  and  their  business  is  conducted  on  such  an 
admirable  sj^stem  that  the  cost  on  every  article  is  reduced  to 
the  minimum,  thus  enabling  them  not  only  to  keep  out  Eastern 
competition,  but  to  supplant  many  Eastern  factories  in  their 
own  localities. 

The  products  of  Rumsey  &  Co.'s  factories  find  ready  sale 
in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  other  Eastern  cities  ;  tlirough- 
out  the  entire  West  as  far  as  San  Francisco,  and  alsc^  in  the 
West  Indies  and  South  America.  The  Rumsey  Brothers  are 
energetic,  enterprising,  practical  and  truly  representative 
men,  entitled  to  a  credit  commensurate  with  their  enormous 
business. 


THE  SEMPLE  &  BIRGE  MAUFACTURING  CO. 

Recognizing  the  position  and  advantages  of  St.  Louis  as  a 
commercial  center,  when  civil  strife  ended,  the  members  of  the 
above  corporation  commenced  business  as  a  firm,  about  twelve 
years  ago,  obtaining  what  at  that  time  Avas  considered  a  very 
central  location  in  the  city:  No.  13  South  Main  Street,  a  fcAv 
doors  south  of  Market  Street  and  opposite  the  old  Merchants' 
Exchange.  Agricultural  implements,  small  farming  tools, 
known  to  the  trade  as  "wood  and  steel  goods,"  such  as  grain 
cradles,  snaths,  forks,  hoes',  rakes,  etc.,  and  the  Whitewater 
wagons  were  then  their  principal  items  of  trade  ;  but  earl}^ 
demands  from  their  customers  required  the  addition  from  time 
to  time  of  other  items,  and  keeping  steadily  in  view  the  prin- 
ciple of  dealing  only  in  the  best  and  at  as  low  a  price  as  such 
quality  could  be  afforded,  their  annual  sales  have  increased 
steadily,  making  an  aggregate  for  1877  of  nearly  ten  times  that 


252  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

of  the  year  1866.  Few  sections  of  this  country  are  not  now 
tributary  to  the  business  of  this  company.  Their  customers 
in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  have  been  so  numerous  as  to 
require  the  entire  attention  of  one  man  to  look  after  their  in- 
terests in  that  section.  Maryland,  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and 
the  southern  and  western  shores  of  the  country,  north  to  Man- 
itoba and  all  included  territory,  are  being  supplied  to  an  extent 
that  is  constantly  increasing.  Exceptional  shipments  have 
been  made  to  London  and  Germany,  and  considerable  export 
traffic  to  Brazil  has  recently  taken  place. 

Nothing  short  of  a  catalogue  of  several  hundred  pages  will 
adequately  represent  the  items  now  furnished  by  the  Semple 
&  Birge  Manufacturing  Company.  Three  factories  which 
"grow  with  their  growth,"  are  located  respectively  iu  St. 
Louis,  Seymour,  Ind.,  and  Whitewater,  Wis.,  and  furnish 
employment  for  about  four  hundred  men. 

This  company  now  furnishes  almost  everything  necessary  in 
the  way  of  farming  tools  and  machinery,  cane  and  cotton  ma- 
chinery, feed  cutters,  mills  and  boilers,  reapers,  threshers,  corn 
shellers,  wood-sawing  machines,  steam  engines,  mill  and  eleva- 
tor machinery,  including  bolting  cloth,  belting,  pulleys,  shafts 
ing,  and  the  most  approved  machinery  necessary  to  the  pre- 
paring and  handling  of  grain,  flour,  meal,  etc.,  shovels,  spades, 
and  scoops,  ice  tools,  various  hardware  items,  etc.,  etc. 

The  completion  of  the  bridge  and  tunnel,  and  location  of 
the  new  post-office  in  1875,  indicating  Washington  Avenue  as 
the  future  location  of  the  wholesale  trade  of  this  city,  induced 
this  firm  to  erect,  at  910  and  912  Washington  Avenue,  the  finest 
building  in  that  locality,  consisting  of  five  stories  and  basement, 
and  fronting  on  both  Washington  Avenue  and  St.  Charles 
Street.  Since  that  time  an  addition  adjoining,  Nos.  915  and 
917  St.  Charles  Street,  has  been  erected,  and  this  season 
(1878)  the  stone  building  extending  on  St.  Charles  Street 
from  Nos.  919  to  927— the  entire  front  of  the  block  from  St. 
Charles  Street  to  Wasliington  Avenue,  including  Nos.  500  to 
514  North  Tenth  Street,  and  on  Washington  Avenue  from  Nos. 
922  to  926  has  been  secured  for  temporary  use.  The  estab- 
lishment now  contains  "acres  of  room,"  on  which  there  is 


MANUFACTURING.  253 

probably  the  largest  and  best  stock  of  goods  of  the  kind  to  be 
found  anywhere  in  the  United  States  or  the  Avorld. 

A  telephone  connects  the  central  office  with  the  Shovel 
Factory  at  Nos.  1029  and  1031  North  Main  Street,  about  a 
mile  distant,  by  means  of  which  the  business  is  greatly  facili- 
tated. The  sound  of  trip-hammers  and  hum  of  machinery  at 
that  point  can  be  distinctly  heard. 

Another  telephone  in  the  same  office  connects  with  the  St. 
Louis  Telephone  Exchange,  and  by  this  arrangement  a  man 
can,  from  his  desk  in  this  office,  transact  business  verbally  with 
any  one  or  all  of  the  other  business  concerns  connected  by 
telephone  with  the  central  office  of  the  exchange.  The  man 
calls  the  central  office,  notifies  the  attendant  whom  he  wants  to 
speak  to,  and  by  the  movement  of  a  small  lever,  the  telephone 
to  the  desired  place  is  united  with  the  speaker,  and  the  business 
conversation  is  carried  on  without  being  heard  at  the  other 
places.  The  Merchant's  Exchange,  the  Mayor's  office.  Police 
Department,  Fire  Department,  banks,  railroad  freight  offices, 
steamboat  offices,  insurance  offices,  and  the  principal  factories 
and  business  houses  of  the  city  are  connected  with  the  central 
office  of  the  Telephone  Exchange. 

Probably  in  the  same  line  of  business,  as  large  a  variety, 
as  good  goods,  as  extended  trade  and  as  much  business  enter- 
prise, can  not  be  found  elsewhere,  as  at  Nos.  910  and  912 
Washington  Avenue,  and  911,  913,  915  and  917  St.  Charles 
Street,  this  city  ;  and  it  speaks  well  for  the  future  of  this  city 
that  with  the  recent  complaint  of  general  depression  in  business, 
that  such  a  business  has  been  constantly  increasing  and  pros- 
pering from  the  date  of  its  first  organization. 


254 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS 


WARDWELL  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

The  greatest  invention  of  the  nineteenth  century  is 
undoubtedly  the  sewing  machine.  But  the  original  was  a 
crude  and  cumbersome  piece  of  mechanism,  susceptible  of 
vast  improvements.  The  introduction  of  new  inventions  to 
replace  the  more  unsatisfactory  parts  of  the  sewing  max^hine 

has  been  constant, 

until  the  result  is 

seen   in  the  most 

wonderfully     per- 

fect     A\^ardvvell. 

There  must  be  a  stage  in 

all    things    when    further 

})rogress  and  improvement 

is    impossible  ;    when   the 

oreatest  jjenius    discovers 

his    metes     and    bounds, 

and    further    ambition    is 

stifled  by  an  accomplished 

purpose. 

All  sewing  machines  of 
to-day  are  marvelous 
pieces  of  mechanism, 
whose  fruits  are  inestim- 
al)le  blessings  to  woman- 
kind ;  but  there  is  always 
a  preference  among  the 
many,  and  one  superior 
to  all  others  ;  the  question 
for  solution,  therefore, 
must  necessarily  be : 
"Which  is  the  best?"  The 
last  machine  invented  has  a  great  advantage,  in  that  it  is 
supposed  to  represent  an  improvement  over  all  others  ;  and 
accepting  this  as  a  proposition  demonstrated,  the  Wardwell 
should,  as  it  certainly  does,  surpass  all  others. 

This  machine  is  a  product  of  St.  Louis  genius,  having 
been  conceived,  invented  and  is  manufactured  bv  St.  Louis 


MANUFACTURING.  255 

gentlemen.  Its  points  of  superiority  over  all  others  are  in  its 
general  features,  differing  in  nearly  every  respect  from  all 
other  styles  made.  Primarily,  the  Ward  well  has  neither 
shuttle  nor  bobbin,  those  twin  evils  of  other  machines  ;  it  has 
less  than  one-third  the  number  of  parts  ;  it  has  tlie  least  fric- 
tion, and  is  consequently  the  lightest  running ;  it  requires  no 
adjusting,  and  is  so  simple  that  a  child  can  understand  it, 
and  it  can  not  get  out  of  order.  The  needle  is  self-adjusting, 
and  therefore  can  not  be  set  wrong ;  it  is  almost  noiseless ; 
scAving  directly  from  the  spool,  it  requires  no  tedious  winding 
on  to  the  shuttle  ;  it  is  the  only  machine  that  admits  of  one 
person  treading  while  another  handles  tlic  stitching ;  and 
lastly,  it  has  a  rotary  table,  which  permits  the  sewing  to  run 
in  any  required  direction  at  the  pleasure  of  the  operator. 
These  are  a  few  of  the  superior  features  of  the  Wardwell,  but 
sufficient  to  show  that  in  its  construction  immense  progress 
has  been  made,  and  to  demonstrate  its  perfection,  making 
further  improvement  in  sewing  machine  mechanism  ai)]iarently 
impossible.  That  it  will  soon  supersede  every  shuttle  macliine 
now  in  the  market  scarcely  admits  of  any  reasonable  doubt , 
as  the  demand  is  already  in  excess  of  the  supply.  In  fact  the 
Wardwell  has  revolutionized  the  sewing  machine  industry, 
and  has  made  its  inventor  one  of  the  great  geniuses  of 
the  age. 

The  Wardwell  Manufacturing  Company  was  organized  in 
1874,  with  a  subscribed  capital  of  $1,000,000,  and  a  Avorking 
capital  of  $200,000.  The  officers  are :  George  W.  ShaAv, 
President;  James  H.  Forbes,  Vice-President ;  Joseph  W. 
Baeppler,  Secretary,  and  Hugh  Menown,  Treasurer ;  and  the 
office  of  the  company  is  at  No.  915  North  Fourth  Street. 
The  manufacturing  is  done  at  the  Colt  Annory,  at  Hartford, 
Connecticut.  The  Wardwell  Avas  exhibited  at  the  Centemiial 
before  being  put  on  sale,  and  was  the  only  seAving  machine 
awarded  a  diploma  for  pure  merit,  novelty,  finish  and  ingenuity, 
and  wherever  exhibited  its  vast  superiority  is  at  once  ackuoAvl- 
edged. 


256  TOUR    OF    ST.  LOUIS. 

M.  M.  BUCK  &  CO. — Railway  Supplies. 

St.  Louis  is  now  recognized  as  one  of  the  few  great  rail- 
road centers  of  America,  stretching  out  her  brawny  iron  arms 
in  every  direction,  and  grasping  the  commerce  of  every  State 
in  the  Union.  Her  development  under  the  impetus  given  by 
the  construction  of  new  roads  has  been  very  rapid  and  so  im- 
portant that  the  active  agents  in  our  railroad  -factorship  are 
entitled  to  recognition  in  this  work,  which  purposes  the  per- 
petuation of  our  laudable  enterprises  and  institutions. 

Amon<T^  the  number  selected  as  representatives  of  the  rail- 
roadino"  industry  of  St,  Louis,  there  is  no  firm  occupying  a  more 
conspicuous  position  than  that  of  M.  M.  Buck  &  Co.  This 
house  was  established  by  M.  M.  Buck  in  1859,  at  No.  54  Vine 
Street.  Mr.  Buck  was,  at  the  time  of  his  embarkation  into 
the  business,  less  than  twenty  years  of  age,  and  his  total  cash 
capital  was  two  hundred  dollars  ;  and  besides  this  humble  and 
disadvantageous  beginning,  there  were  only  six  railroads  enter- 
ing St.  Louis.  But  Mr.  Buck  had  the  ability  to  mould  circum- 
stances into  desirable  ends  and  even  utilize  obstacles.  After 
doinjr  business  at  his  original  house  for  three  vears,  Mr.  Buck 
removed  to  a  building  on  Vine,  between  Main  and  Second 
streets,  where  he  remained  until  1869,  when  he  again  removed, 
selecting  his  present  quarters,  at  No.  209  North  Third  Street. 
The  building  is  fifty  feet  in  width,  by  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  length,  and  is  six  stories  in  height.  Every  foot  of 
space  is  utilized,  besides  a  large  warehouse  in  the  rear  for 
storing  the  immense  stock  of  spikes,  Avire-rope,  boiler  tubes, 
etc.,  carried  constantly  by  the  house.  The  firm  carries  a  stock 
of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  comprising  every  conceivable 
article  used  in  the  construction  and  operation  of  railroads,  such 
as  steamboat,  telegraph,  machinists'  and  contractors'  supplies, 
and  also  includes  track  material,  shop,  locomotive,  foundry  and 
depot  supplies,  and  many  of  their  goods,  of  which  they  are 
sole  manufacturers  under  patents,  are  sold  throughout  the 
United  States.  They  now  have  over  one  hundred  railroads 
on  their  patron  list,  issue  a  regular  monthly  price-iist,  and 
operate  one  ot  the  largest  manufactories  of  railway  supplies  in 
the  United  States  ;  their  annual  sales  are  over  a  million  dollars. 


I 


MANUFACTURING . 


257 


CURTIS  &  CO.— Saws  and  Edge  Tools. 

The  cut  below  represents  the  important  nuinufactory  of 
Curtis  &  Co.,  whose  saws  are  known  and  used  in  every  part 
of  America.  This  house  deserves  a  first  place  among  our 
leading  manufacturers,  because  it  has  contributed  large  I  v 
toward  making  St.  Louis  the  great  city  that  she  is.  Their 
extensive  foctory  is  located  on  the  corner  of  Ninth  and  Mon- 
roe streets,  and  the  office  and  salesroom  is  at  No.  811  North 


.\  'Lv*:^1^r'n  n  n  n  'I  3  3 

^^  '  f  ^  ^1  n  P  ^  ^  i 


"milMiMi^ 


i-'i  1 


Second  Street,  where,  in  addition  to  the  products  of  their 
own  factory,  the  firm  deals  largely  in  all  kinds  of  mill  and 
lumbermen's  supplies,  and  have  a  trade  extending  from  the 
British  possessions  to  the  Gulf  coast  of  Texas,  and  in  fact 
branches  into  every  State  in  the  Union.  A  greater  portion  of 
their  trade,  however,  comes  from  the  large  pine  and  lumber  re- 
gions, where  Curtis  &  Co.'s  saAvs  are  in  almost  exclusive  use. 
The  house  is  under  the  management  of  Oscar  Bradford, 

17 


258  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

who  is  President  of  the  Company,  and  a  gentleman  of  the 
most  courteous  address  and  large  business  experience  and 
adaptability.  Dexter  S.  Crosby  has  for  several  years  held  the 
responsible  position  of  Secretary  of  the  firm,  and  is  well 
known  throughout  the  West.  Curtis  &  Co.'s  trade  is  con- 
stantly extending,  and  they  are  the  largest  manufacturers 
and  dealers  in  their  line  of  goods  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 


J.  K.  CUMMINGS.— St.  Louis  Glass  Works. 

The  St.  Louis  Glass  Works,  located  on  the  corner  of 
Broadway  and  Monroe  streets,  are  an  industry  in  themselves 
which  reflect  credit  upon  the  manufacturing  interest  of  the 
city.  The  works  occupy  nearly  one  entire  block,  with  fur- 
naces, packing-houses,  annealing  ovens,  fire-clay  rooms  for 
making  pots,  store-rooms,  offices,  and  include  Nos.  2301  to  2315 
Broadway.  Mr.  J.  K.  Cummings,  the  proprietor,  purchased 
the  factory  in  1860,  and  has  increased  the  facilities  and  made 
of  the  works  a  truly  great  and  remunerative  institution.  The 
goods  manufactured  include  lamp  chimneys,  bottles,  fruit  jars, 
etc.,  and  the  trade  supplied  by  Mr.  Cummings  extends  over 
the  entire  West. 


BEARD  &  BRO— Safes. 

This  immense  safe  manufactory  is  located  at  No.  918  North 
Second  Street.  The  firm  of  Beard  &  Bro.  make  the  most 
perfect  safes  for  durability  and  proof  against  fire  and  thieves 
to  be  found  in  any  market.  The  patents  that  have  been 
awarded  them  reflect  credit  upon  their  advanced  ideas.  Their 
safes  have  an  immense  sale,  and  have  been  subjected  to  every 
test  calculated  to  prove  their  worth,  all  of  which  they  have 
withstood  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public.  Their  screw-door 
burglar-proof  safe  received  the  highest  award  at  the  Centennial 
Exhibition,  for  security  against  burglars.  It  is  powder  and 
wedge  proof. 


MANUFACTURING . 


259 


DEERE,  MANSUR  &  CO. — Manufacturers   and  Jobbers 
OF  Farm  Machinery. 

This  house,  which  is  a  branch  of  the  great  plow  works  of 
Deere  &  Co.,  Moliiic,  Illinois,  started  at  Kansas  City  about 
ten  years  ago,  and  six  years  later  opened  a  house  at  St.  Louis, 
to  more  thoroughly  care  for  its  large  and  growing  Texas  and 
Southern  trade. 

With  the  year  1878  the  plow  works  of  Deere  &  Company 
entered  upon  the  thirty-lirst  year  of  its  existence  ;  its  founder 


JOHN    DEE  HE, 

The  Pioneer  in  Western  Plow  Manufactures,  and  Founder  of  the  Largest  Steel  Plow 

Factory  in  the  World. 

havino-  removed  to  Moline  in  the  year  1847  from  Grand 
Detour,  111.,  where  he  had  ])cen  making  steel  plows  the  previous 
ten  years,  and  the  name  of  John  Deere  is  therefore  associated 
in  the  minds  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  the  Western  States 
with  the  first  steel  plows  ever  made. 

The  settlement  of  the  Northwestern  Territory — now  con- 
stituting the  Western  States— at  that  early  date  had  just  com- 
menced ;  and  their  marvelous  growth  in  wealth  and  population 


260 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


is  but  a  fair  index  to  the  growth  of  these  works  ;  and  though, 
its  founder  doubtless  expected  a  large  degree  of  success  to 
result  from  well-directed  energy  and  skill,  yet  he  could  not 
have  anticipated  that  it  was  destined  to  become  what  it  now  is, 
the  largest  plow  manufactory  in  the  world — employing  six  hun- 
dred men,  aided  by  machinery  to  perfect  and  cheapen  the 
production,  and  render  every  part  uniform. 

These  works  have  a  capacity  for  turning  out  five  hundred 
finished  steel  plows,  sulkies,  gangs  and  cultivators  every  day, 
usinsf  three  thousand  five  hundred  tons  of  steel  and  iron 
annually.  The  sale  of  such  an  immense  number  of  plows  is 
not  only  an  indication  of  the  wide  extent  of  prairie  country 


DEERE  &  CO.'S  MOLINE  PLOW  WORKS. 


in  which  steel  plows  are  exclusively  used,  but,  with  the  lively 
competition  which  prevails  in  these  times  in  every  market,  it 
is  also  a  sure  indication  of  the  largest  measure  of  merit. 

While  manufacturers  generally,  and  all  departments  of 
industrv  in  the  East  and  the  Old  World  are  suffering  the 
greatest  depression  and  distress  known  for  thirty  years,  the 
Western  farmers  can  be  congratulated  upon  more  than  an  aver- 
age measure  of  prosperity.  All  products  of  the  soil  find  a  ready 
market  at  fair  prices,  while  the  many  failures  among  merchants 
and  manufacturers  too  surely  indicate  that  other  branches  of 
industry  are  unremunerative. 

Farmers  in  this  country  are  provided  with  implements  of 


MANUFACTURING.   .  261 

economic  husbandry  of  higher  merit  than  is  known  in  any 
other  Land,  enabling  them  to  compote  in  all  the  mark(>ts  of 
the  world  with  farm  products  of  cheaper  labor — a  result  pro- 
duced by  the  ingenuity  of  American  mechanics  unit^Ml  with 
the  enterprise  and  intelligent  industry  of  American  farmers. 

The  latest  inyention,  and  a  wonderful  success,  is  the  "Gil- 
pin "  Sulky  Plow,  one  of  the  specialties  of  Deere,  Mansur  & 
Co.'s  immense  stock.  A  sale  of  three  thousand  in  the  first 
year  after  its  introduction  and  the  unbounded  satisfaction 
they  have  given  to  every  farmer  using  them — and  this  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  many  other  makes  of  sulkies  had  been  on  the 
market  three  to  six  years  previously — is  ample  proof  of  the 
authority  of  our  claim  to  the  best  sulky  plow  in  existence. 

The  manufactures  of  this  concern  comprise  all  styles  of 
steel  plows  for  old  and  new  ground,  wood  and  iron  beam  ; 
also,  walking  and  riding  cultivators,  harrows,  etc.,  etc. 

Deere,  Mansur  &  Co.,  at  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City,  are 
general  agents  for  the  leading  manufacturers  of  threshers, 
drills,  rakes,  farm  wagons,  spring  wagons,  corn  planters, 
engines,  etc.,  and  do  a  large  trade  in  all  these  classes  of 
goods. 

The  Manager  of  the  St.  Louis  house  is  Mr.  A.  Mansur,  a 
a  gentleman  of  large  experience  in  the  implement  business 
and  well  known  to  the  Western  merchants. 


262 


TOUK    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


ST.  LOUIS   TYPE   FOUNDRY. 


In  the  development  of  humanity,  and  in  the  elevating  of  the 
o-eneral  masses  of  the  human  race  from  a  state  of  ignorance  and 
brutality  to  one  of  enlightened  reason,  progress  and  freedom,  no 
factor  has  exerted  a  more  powerful  influence  than  the  printers' 
type.  Important  as  this  little  factor  is,  and  must  ever  con- 
tinue to  be,  in  the  furtherance  of  great  and  noble  purposes  and 


uses,  few  persons,  even  among  those  who  use  them  for  their 
own  livelihood,  have  ever  witnessed  or  understood  the  process 
of  its  manufacture. 

A  brief  history  of  the  establishment  and  operation  of  the 
St.  Louis  Type  Foundry,  one  of  the  leading  institutions  of 
the  kind  in  America,  must  prove  both  interesting  and  instruc- 
tive.    This  concern  was  established  in  1840,  and  from  a  small 


MANUFACTURING.  2G3 

beginning  has  grown  to  its  present  proportions,  requiring  two 
buildings  on  the  north  side  of  Pine  Street  and  two  upper  lioors 
of  a  warehouse  on  Second  Street.  Here  are  manufactured  the 
type,  rules,  cases,  leads,  cuts,  hand  presses  and  all  the  various 
kinds  of  materials  and  machinery  used  in  a  printing  othce. 

The  casting-room  is  on  the  tifth  floor,  where  may  be  seen 
fourteen  improved  type  machines  running  by  steam,  and  cast- 
ing type  Avith  greater  speed  and  perfection  than  in  any  similar 
establishment  in  the  country.  After  casting,  the  jets  remain- 
ing on  the  bottom  of  the  type  are  broken  oft"  by  a  number 
of  boys,  after  which  it  is  sent  to  the  room  below  ;  in  this  de- 
partment it  goes  through  various  manipulations,  such  as  rub- 
bing, kerning,  setting,  and  finishing,  which  processes  require 
the  employment  of  a  large  number  of  men  and  girls.  The 
type  when  completed  is  forwarded  to  the  salesroom,  from 
whence  it  goes  to  the  various  printing  offices  in  the  West  and 
South. 

Adjoining  the  casting-room  is  the  brass  de[)artment,  where 
the  various  designs  of  brass  rules,  leads,  slugs,  metal  furni- 
ture, etc.,  are  made.  The  fourth  floor  is  devoted  to  electro- 
typing  and  stereotyping,  which  is  an  important  branch  of  the 
business  ;  and  in  another  apartment  on  the  same  floor  the  type 
cases,  cabinets,  galleys  and  other  printers'  furniture  are  manufac- 
tured. On  the  third  floor  is  the  machine  shop,  where  the 
Washington  hand-press  is  made  and  machinery  repaired,  and 
old  presses  are  rebuilt.  In  the  rear  of  the  third  floor  of 
the  main  building  is  the  machinery  warehouse,  where  the  press 
stock  is  displayed,  including  among  the  job  presses  the  Gor- 
don, Universal,  Nonpareil,  Liberty,  Peerless,  etc.  The  second 
floor  is  used  for  the  storage  of  one  of  the  best  selected  stocks 
of  paper,  cards,  card-boards,  envelopes,  tags,  and  every  vari- 
ety of  printers'  stationery  to  be  found  in  the  West.  On  this 
floor  may  also  be  found  the  business  offices  of  the  company. 
The  first  floor  is  occupied  as  a  general  salesroom,  is  over  one 
hundred  feet  in  length,  and  filled  with  every  variety  of  printers' 
tools  and  implements.  The  basement  is  reserved  for  second- 
hand machinery  and  the  storage  of  news  and  job  ink,  of  all 
variety  of  colors.  The  number  of  persons  employed  in  the 
various  departments  of  this  institution  is  nearly  one  hundred. 


264  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  trade  of  the  St.  Louis  Type  Foundry  extends  through 
sixteen  States  and  all  the  Territories,  and  its  product  is  con- 
sidered as  fine  in  every  respect  as  that  of  any  foundry  in  the 
world.  Mr.  Bright,  the  Secretary,  has  been  with  the  estab- 
lishment since  1845,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  not  a 
newspaper  man  in  the  West  who  does  not  know  and  esteem 
him.  Mr.  Charles  S.  Kauffman  has  charge  of  the  financial 
department,  and  has  been  identified  wi^h  the  foundry  since 
1861.  The  mechanical  department  is  under  the  superinten- 
dency  of  Mr.  James  G.  Pavyer. 


F.  A.  DURGIN. — Manufacturer  of  Solid  Silverware. 

To  the  St.  Louis  visitor  of  aesthetic  taste,  whose  pleasure 
is  found  in  the  admiration  of  the  most  elegant  products  of 
man's  ingenuity,  no  place  within  the  limits  of  the  great 
metropolis  will  aiford  so  much  interest  as  the  extensive  solid 
silverware  manufactory  of  F.  A.  Durgin,  located  at  No.  305 
North  Seventh  Street.  The  foundation  of  this  elaborate  in- 
stitution was  laid  by  the  present  proprietor  in  1858,  in  a  small 
building  on  the  corner  of  Market  and  Commercial  streets. 
The  necessity  for  subsequent  changes  caused  three  removals 
of  the  business,  first,  to  the  corner  of  Fourth  and  Spruce 
streets  ;  next  to  the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Pine,  up  stairs  ;  and 
in  1868  to  the  present  premises.  The  last  removal  was  of  the 
greatest  importance,  for  the  building  was  fitted  up  specially 
for  a  manufactory,  and  was  of  proper  dimensions  to  admit  of 
the  most  extensive  manufacturing  and  retail  business.  Steam 
power  was  added,  together  Avith  all  the  necessary  machinery 
for  converting  silver  bricks  into  the  most  elegant  ornaments 
of  table  use  and  personal  adornment. 

The  processes  through  which  the  pure  silver  passes  from 
the  brick  or  coin  into  the  numerous  articles  so  skillfully 
designed  and  executed,  is  full  of  absorbing  interest  to  every 
visitor,  whether  he  be  a  novice  or  the  most  critical  connoisseur 
of  the  fine  arts.  Upon  entering  the  room  the  first  object  of 
special    attention    is    the    stamping    machine,    which    shapes 


MANUFACTURING.  205 

straight  bars  of  silver  into  knives,  forks,  spoons,  etc.  In  tlie 
rear  of  the  factory  are  two  crucibles,  through  which  1  he  alloyed 
silver  passes  and  comes  out  pure  and  beautiful.  The  hum  of 
numerous  appliances  makes  the  place  nuisical,  and  u])on 
reaching  the  second  story  the  visitor  tinds  so  many  interesting 
features  that  his  stay  is  necessarily  prolonged  far  beyond  the 
time  he  had  allotted.  The  fashioning  of  thin  plates  of  silver 
into  pitchers,  sugar  bowls,  castors,  butter  dishes,  the  beautiful 
repousse  work,  or  hammered  silver,  and  a  thousand  articles  of 
like  character,  is  a  process  which  excites  the  most  profound  in- 
terest. An  attempted  description  of  all  the  means  employed 
would  be  futile  and  unsatisfactory,  for  nothing  can  approximate 
the  scene.  All  our  readers,  beyond  a  doubt,  have  often  won- 
dered how  silverware  is  polished  ;  true,  they  all  know  that  the 
use  of  a  special  preparation  and  a  vigorous  rubbing  with  chamois 
skin  will  thoroughly  cleanse  silver,  but  yet  no  such  means  will 
impart  to  the  ware  that  bright,  satin  finish  which  is  seen  upon 
the  new  articles  exposed  for  sale. 

The  process  employed  by  the  manufacturer  is  a  very  simple 
one.  Upon  one  end  of  a  rod,  which  is  made  to  revolve  with 
the  greatest  rapidity,  like  a  turning  lathe,  is  fastened  the 
burnishing  brush.  This  brush  consists  of  a  ball  of  small  brass 
wires,  about  one  inch  in  length,  fastened  loosely  at  one  end  to 
a  center  piece  by  the  union  of  two  rings.  The  small  wires 
are  therefore  free  to  dangle,  and  when  the  machine  is  set  in 
motion  the  centrifugal  force  throws  the  wires  freely  outward. 
Against  these  the  article  desired  to  be  polished  is  held,  and 
the  beautiful  gloss  at  once  appears,  and  in  a  very  few  moments 
the  pitcher,  dish,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  is  ready  for  sale. 

In  addition  to  the  immense  manufacturing  interests  of 
Mr.  Durgin,  he  gives  special  attention  to  engraving,  keeping 
constantly  employed  two  of  the  most  skillful  and  expert  work- 
men in  the  country,  and  doing  the  finest  work  in  the  city. 

The  salesroom  of  this  great  establishment  is  one  of  the  most 
elejrant  and  elaborate  to  be  found  either  P^ast  or  AVest.  In 
the  arrangement  of  the  cabinet  show-cases,  which  are  of  solid 
walnut,  richly  embellished  with  the  genius  of  the  most  expeii; 
Avood  carver,  Mr.  Durgin  has  exhibited  the  most  rcHncd 
and  tasteful  conception.     These  cases   extend   in  an  upright 


1 


266  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOU18. 

position  along  both  sides  of  the  room,  with  beautiful  plate- 
glass  sliding  doors,  and  upon  the  shelving,  in  the  handsome 
arrangement,  is  displayed  the  superb  stock  of  the  establish- 
ment, comprising  the  larger  silver  articles,  and  as  beautiful  a 
siglit  as  ever  eye  beheld.  Near  the  center  of  the  room,  sub- 
serving the  double  purpose  of  show-case  and  counter,  are  the 
exquisite  silver-mounted  plate-glass  cases,  in  which  is  exhib- 
ited such  articles  as  silver  spoons,  knives  of  various  kinds, 
napkin  rings,  combs,  salt-cellars,  and  a  hundred  other  unique 
and  handsome,  ornamental  and  useful  provisions  for  sump- 
tuous dining  and  the  interior  decoration  of  palatial  homes. 

Mr.  Durgin  is  well  supported  in  his  commendable  undertak- 
ing of  providing  for  a  want  long  felt  by  elevating  the  tastes  of 
our  people  to  the  very  highest-  appreciation  of  fine  art.  His 
establishment  now  turns  out  the  most  elegant  articles  of  solid 
silverware  to  be  found  in  the  United  States,  and  many  of  his 
goods  are  even  shipped  on  orders  to  Europe.  He  manufac- 
tures nothing  except  solid  silverware,  but  in  order  to  provide 
for  all  demands  he  keeps  a  large  stock  of  plated  ware,  which 
he  receives  direct  from  the  manufactories,  by  which  means  he 
is  enabled  to  sell  on  first  margins. 

Schooled  in  the  business  by  a  practical  experience  of  thirty 
years,  there  is  no  one  better  prepared  to  meet  the  Avants  of 
customers  for  silverware  than  Mr.  Durgin.  In  this  trade,  as 
in  every  other,  there  are  tricks  which  it  is  difficult  for  the  pub- 
lic to  understand,  consequently  it  is  always  important  to  deal 
with  a  gentleman  whose  character  is  such  that  there  is  every 
assurance  no  deception  will  be  practiced.  In  the  twent}'^ 
years  of  Mr.  Durgin' s  business  in  St.  Louis  he  has  gathered 
nothing  but  the  most  honorable  recognition  from  his  patrons  ; 
among  those  of  his  acquaintance  his  representations  are  facts 
and  his  suggestions  of  the  highest  value.  He  has  built  up  a 
trade  commensurate  with  the  growth  and  importance  of  the 
Western  empire. 

Mr.  Durgin' s  is  one  of  the  most  complete  factories  in  the 
country,  and  the  superiority  of  his  work  has  secured  for  him 
the  patronage  of  the  best  and  wealthiest  citizens  of  the  West  ; 
in  short  his  facilities  are  such  that  he  can  manufacture  every 
conceivable  article  pertinent  to  the  silver  trade. 


STONE-IKON    WARE. 


267 


METAL  STAMPING  AND  ENAMELING  COMPANY. 

Within  the  past  few  years  a  new  branch  of  industry  has 
been  developed  in  St.  Louis,  which  has  taken  sudden  rank 
among  the  most  advanced  and  vahiable  manufacturing  interests 
of  America.  In  the  early  history  of  this  country  the  articles 
of  culinary  use  were  ceramic  pots  ;  clay  was  superseded  by 
bronze  and  copper ;  then  iron  came  next,  which  in  turn  has 
been  largely  supplanted  by  tin  ;  the  latest  and  most  important 
improvement  is  a  St.  Louis  invention,  known  as  Stone-iron 
Ware.  This  new  manufacture  is  one  of  prime  i.ecessity,  is 
very  attractive,  and  because  it  is  indestructible  and  unchange- 
able, is  infinitely  cheaper  than  those  it  is  rapidly  succeeding. 

This  ware  is 
made  by  fusing 
pure  glass  to 
iron  vessels, 
which  are  first 
pressed  into 
the  sha])es  and 
sizes  desired. 
The  glass  is 
first    ground 

and  reduced  to  a  pasty  mass,  into  which  the  vessels  are  dipped, 
and  so  coated.  They  are  then  dried.  The  dark  irregular 
streaks  and  spots  are  due  to  an  infusion  of  the  oxide  of  iron 
derived  from  the  surface  of  the  vessels.  After  being  dried 
the  coatmor  is  fused  to  the  iron  at  a  very  hisfh  heat.  Thus 
made,  Stone-iron  Ware  is  absolutely  free  from  ever}'  ingredient 
of  a  harmful  nature,  and  is  as  safe  to  use  as  porcelam  or 
chinaware. 

The  Metal  Stamping  and  Enameling  Company  was  incor- 
porated in  November  of  1875,  with  an  authorized  cai)ital  of 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  original  works  were  very 
small,  compared  with  the  present  immense  factory,  which 
occupies  Nos.  708,  710  and  712  North  Second  Street.  Their 
product  of  Stone-iron  Ware  soon  found  its  way  to  the  favor  of 
the  public,  and  an  enlargement  of  the  facilities  for  manufac- 
turmo-  was  bes-un  within  a  month  after  the  works  were  startctl. 


268  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  demand  for  the  ware  has  grown  at  a  most  remarkable 
rate,  the  trade  of  the  company  having  not  only  spread  over 
the  entire  United  States,  but  obtained  a  large  footing  in  South 
America  and  Australia.  Arrangements  have  been  made  to 
manufacture  the  ware  in  England,  and  soon  wnll  be  in  France 
and  Germany,  where  patents  on  the  new  article  have  also 
been  secured. 

The  officers  of  the  Metal  Stamping  and  Enameling  Com- 
pany are  E.  C.Quinby,  President;  J.  C.  Whiting,  Secretary; 
and  J.  J.  Sylvester,  Treasurer.  Mr.  Quinby  was  for  four- 
teen years  prominently  connected  with  the  large  metal  im- 
porting house  of  R,  Sellew  &  Co.,  where  he  obtained  a 
thorough  knowledge,  admirably  qualifying  him  to  fill  the 
important  position  which  he  now  holds.  Mr.  Whiting  was 
also  thoroughly  schooled  in  his  present  business.  Mr. 
Sylvester  is  an  old  resident,  and  for  several  3'ears  has  been 
a  larsre  dealer  in  anthracite  coal,  and  also  a  successful  steam- 
boat  agent.  The  latter  business  he  has  abandoned,  how- 
ever, in  order  to  devote  a  portion  of  his  time  to  his  new 
^duties  with  the  Stone-iron  Ware  Company. 

W.  W.  Ater  held  the  position  of  Vice-President  of  the 
company  from  its  incorporation  until  his  death,  which  occurred 
in  June  of  the  present  year.  Being  one  of  its  principal  stock- 
holders, he  cherished  the  highest  hopes  for  the  future  of  the 
company,  and  upon  his  death  bed  declared  his  investment  in 
the  Metal  Stamping  and  Enameling  business  the  best  and  most 
promising  one  he  had  ever  made. 

The  importance  of  this  new  but  large  enterprise  to  St. 
Louis  can  not  be  over  estimated,  since  it  is  one  of  three  fac- 
tories of  the  kind  in  the  world,  and  its  products  finding  a 
ready  sale  on  both  continents,  advertise  most  effectively  our 
city  as  a  great  manufacturing  center. 


GRAIN    ELEVATORS. 


269 


THE  ADVANCE  ELEVATOR  AND  WAEEIIOUSES. 

The  geographical  position  of  St.  Louis,  which  makes  her 
now  one  of  the 
leading  grain 
markets  of  the 
country, and  the 
facilities  for 
transportation 
which  will  ena- 
ble her  in  the 
near  future  to 
becomethegreat 
granary  of  the 
Mississippi  Val- 
ley, are  more 
particularly  ad- 
verted to  in  an- 
otherpartof  this 
work.  The 
means  provided 
in  this  city  for 
thehandlingand 
shipping  of  grain 
in  bulk,  are  al- 
ready vast  in 
magnitude,  and 
are  well  worthy 
of  more  minute 
description  than 
can  be  readily 
afforded. 

Among  the  nu- 
merous and  well 
sustained  estab- 
lishments where 
grain  is  receiv- 
ed,  stored,  gra- 
ded and  prepar- 
ed for  shipment 


270  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

by  boat  or  rail  to  distant  points,  no  one  ranks  higher  in 
all  the  essential  requisites  for  the  carrynig  on  of  such  business, 
than  the  Advance  Elevator.  This  elevator,  with  its  capacious 
warehouses,  is  located  between  the  termini  of  the  Chicago, 
Alton  and  St.  Louis,  and  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  railroads, 
and  has  direct  connection  with  the  other  railways  centering  in 
East  St.  Louis,  as  well  as  with  the  bridge  and  ferry  landings. 
By  means  of  a  hopper-bottom  car,  grain  can  be  delivered  from 
the  Advance  to  barges  as  rapidly  and  in  as  satisfactory  a 
manner  as  from  the  elevators  located  on  the  river  bank. 

The  warehouses — one  adjoining  the  elevator  and  the  other 
located  on  the  river — have  a  storage  capacity  of  50,000  barrels 
of  flour,  or  other  bulk  freight  in  proportion,  and  this  vast  room 
is  usually  fully  occupied,  which  indicates  the  immense  volume 
of  business  transacted  through  this  elevator.  Special  attention 
is  paid  to  forwarding  flour,  hay,  and  other  freight  which  must 
pass  through  and  break  bulk- in  East  St.  Louis. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  the  "Advance"  is  its  "steam 
shovels,"  no  other  elevator  here  using  this  appliance.  By 
means  of  this  most  ingenious  contrivance,  cars  can  be  unloaded 
in  an  almost  incredibly  short  space  of  time.  Shippers  gener- 
ally, and  especially  those  in  Illinois,  who  consign  to  the  St. 
Louis  market,  would  do  well  to  note  the  comparative  prices 
paid  for  grain  in  the  "Advance"  and  in  the  other  elevators. 
The  fact  that  the  railroads  which  carry  out  a  very  large  part  of 
the  grain,  can  be  reached  from  this  elevator  without  "switch- 
ing charges"  or  other  cost  to  the  shipper,  except  storage,  makes 
grain  stored  in  the  "Advance"  worth  a  premium.  The  strictest 
attention  is  paid  to  the  question  of  weights.  The  scales 
are  examined  monthly,  and  sometimes  oftener,  by  Fairbanks' 
agent.  The  weighman  performs  no  other  duties  in  the  eleva- 
tor, and  the  greatest  care  is  taken  that  every  one  receives  just 
and  accurate  measure.  The  proprietor  of  the  Advance  Eleva- 
tor, Mr.  R.  S.  McCormick,  has  his  principal  office  in  room 
No.  104  in  the  St.  Louis  Chamber  of  Commerce  Buildins:. 


GRAIN    ELEVATORS. 


271 


ST.  LOUIS  GRAIN  ELEVATOR. 

Of  the  numerous  industries  wliioh  go  to  make  up  a  great 
city  like  St.  Louis  none  are  of  more  impoiiance  than  its 
grain  elevators ;  for  it  is  these  agents  that  bring  to  our 
market  the  products  of  the  great  West  for  distribution  over 
the  continent.  The  largest  elevator,  perha[)s,  west  of  New 
York,  is  the  St.  Louis  Elevator,  which  is  located  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  river,  with  switches  leading  to  the  tracks  of  all 
our  railroads.  It  combines  not  only  all  the  improvements  of 
our  best  elevators,  but  also  several  extra  faciHties  designed  and 
patented  by  its  President,  John  Jackson,  Esq.  The  capacity 
of  the  elevator  is  one  million  five  hundred  thousand  bushels  of 
grain,  with  facilities  for  loading  forty  thousand  bushels  into  a 


baro-e  per  hour,  and  for  loading  and  unloading  four  hundred 
cars  in  twelve  hours  ;  the  most  expeditious  handling  of  grain 
ever  devised  by  any  elevator  in  the  world. 

The  President  of  the  elevator,  John  Jackson,  Esq.,  is  one 
of  the  comparatively  few  thoroughly  enterprising  men  of  this 
country — we  say  this  country  because  his  energy  and  means 
have  been  devoted,  not  only  to  the  liberal  improvement  of  St. 
Louis,  but  for  national  purposes  also.  He  Avas  one  of  the 
first  men  to  assist  Capt.  Eads  financially  in  the  Iniilding  of  the 
jetties,  and  gave  abundantly  of  his  means  towards  the  con- 
struction of  the  great  bridge.  He  holds  numerous  i^ositions 
in  large  interests,  and  his  capacity  seems  unlimited,  as  his 
energy  is  fairly  boundless.     The  greater  portion  of  his  time. 


272 


TOUR    OF  ST.    LOUIS. 


however,  is  devoted  to  the  elevator,  A/hich  he  has  brought  to 
a  state  of  absolute  perfection. 

Capt.  D.  P.  Slattery,  the  Secretary  and  Superintendent,  is 
a  gentleman  of  the  greatest  worth  and  fidelity,  having  for  the 
past  eleven  years  been  one  of  the  ruling  spirits  in  the  manage- 
meut  of  the  elevator,  and  in  all  his  relations  has  proven  him- 
self al)lc,  industrious  and  thoroughly  honest,  and  he  is  now 
regarded  as  an  indispensable  adjunct  of  the  institution.  Thus 
officered  and  so  perfectly  arranged  the  St.  Louis  Elevator 
plays  a  leading  part  in  the  commercial  destiny  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley. 


CENTRAL  ELEVATOR. 

The  great  grain  elevators  of  St.  Louis   constitute  the  nu- 
cleus around  which  gather  our  resources,  and   are   the   most 


potent  factors  in  the  advancement  of  our  wealth  and  import- 
ance as  a  commercial  entrepot. 

Year  by  year  their  influence  becomes  better  appreciated, 
and,  as  the  seasons  pass,  their  capacity  grows  in  sympathy  with 
the  increased  cereal  product  of  the  great  West.     Here,  upon 


GRAIN    ELEVATORS.  273 

the  grand  water  highway  to  the  sea,  the  grain  elevators  of  St. 
Louis  gather  the  crops  of  the  new  cinjnre  and  distribute  thorn 
again  into  the  granaries  of  the  Eastern  hemisphere,  herakling 
abroad  our  wealth,  grandeur  and  nnportance  m  the  process  by 
which  the  world  is  fed. 

Among  the  elevators  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  there  is  none 
of  greater  consequence  to  St.  Louis  than  the  Central.  This 
establishment  comprises  two  distinct  elevators,  known  as  "  A  " 
and  "  B,"  one  being  located  at  the  foot  of  Chouteau  Avenue, 
the  other  near  the  Union  Depot,  and  an  immense  warehouse 
at  the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Chouteau  Avenue,  the  combined 
capacity  of  which  is  one  million  three  hundred  thousand 
bushels.  The  main  elevator,  letter  "A,"  was  built  in  1873, 
and  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  buildings  of  the  kind  in  America. 
It  has  a  capacity  for  eight  hundred  thousand  bushels,  and 
being  located  near  the  depot,  with  railroad  tracks  running 
through  it,  the  advantage  in  handhng  grain  is  apparent.  In 
addition  to  these  natural  facilities  the  elevator  is  provided  with 
grade  and  special  bins  and  reversible  spouts,  a  recent  invention 
for  loading  cars  on  the  track. 

Elevator  "  B  "  is  equally  well  arranged  for  handling  grain 
from  and  loading  boats  and  barges,  and  has  a  capacity  for 
three  hundred  thousand  bushels.  Both  the  elevators  and 
warehouse  are  connected  by  telephone,  so  that  the  workings  of 
each  are  directed  from  the  main  office,  adjoining  elevator  "A." 

The  officers  of  the  Central. Elevator  Company  are  N.  G. 
Larimore,  President ;  Web,  M.  Samuels,  Vice-President,  and 
J.  W.  Larimore,  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  and  the  operating 
capital  is  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  central  location 
of  the  elevators  owned  by  the  company,  and  the  .superior 
facilities  with  which  they  are  supplied,  has  not  only  largely 
benefited  the  proprietors,  but  St.  Louis  as  well ;  and  with  the 
completion  of  the  jetties,  the  receipts  of  grain  by  St.  Louis 
dealers,  at  the  present  rate  of  increase,  will  soon  exceed  that 
of  any  other  city  in  America,  a  consummation  long  looked 
forward   to    with   impatient  zeal,  but  undeviatiug  confidence. 


18 


BREWERIES.  275 

WM.  J.  LEMP'S  WESTERN  BREWERY. 

The  brewery  interest  is  now  one  of  the  leading  industries 
of  America,  and  although  it  belongs  primarily  to  Europe,  it 
has  attained  a  point  of  excellence  incomparal)ly  greater  in  tliis 
than  any  other  country.  We  read  with  delightful  anticipation 
of  the  old  burgomaster's  pleasure  over  his  nmg  of  newly 
brewed  ]>eer,  and  imagine  his  jolly,  rubicund  countenance  ges- 
ticulating the  happ3^  stories  which  the  exhilarating  beverage 
inspires  ;  but  compared  with  the  Holland  and  Germany  product 
the  beer  of  America  is  nectarine  and  inspirational.  The  reason 
of  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  in  the  beer-drinking  districts 
of  Europe  the  beverage  is  sold  at  such  a  uniformly  low  price 
that  it  is  impossible  to  make  any  protit  on  a  good  article.  In 
this  country,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  a  disposition  to  spend 
more,  and  a  higher  excellence  is  therefore  universally  de- 
manded. The  consequence  of  our  connoisseur  taste  is  the 
adaptation  of  all  the  improved  methods  and  most  scrupulous 
care  in  the  manufacture  of  what  is  fast  becominsr  the  srreat 
drink  of  America  and  the  world. 

Our  great  breweries  are  a  feature  in  which  a  native  pride 
must  necessarily  manifest  itself,  not  only  because  of  the  enor- 
mous capital  invested  or  the  magnificent  edifices  which  stand 
as  enduring  monuments  of  individual  enterprise,  but  because 
in  the  proportion  people  adopt  beer  as  a  beverage,  drunkenness, 
and  the  crimes  consequent,  diminish.  The  only  possil)le 
way  by  which  inebriety  can  be  prevented  is  by  supplanting  the 
fiery  and  poisonous  liquors  with  a  drink  that  cheers  and  ex- 
hilarates without  making  men  mad,  impetuous  or  drunkards  ; 
and  since  beer  possesses  these  properties  its  discovery  is  sub- 
serving a  most  useful  purpose,  and  it  must  at  length  prove  a 
orreat  assent  in  the  reformation  of  mankind. 

Every  large  city  now  has  its  brewery,  and  new  ones  are  be- 
ing constantly  erected.  In  St,  Louis  we  are  fortunate  in  pos- 
sessinof  one  of  the  larg-est  and  finest  breweries  in  the  United 
States  ;  and  in  saying  the  United  States  we  comi)rehend  a 
greater  portion  of  the  world,  for  America  is  essentially  the 
brewery  for  both  hemispheres.  Wm.  J.  Lemp's  Western 
Brewery  is  known  by  reputation  in  every  civilized  section  of 


276  TOUR    OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

the  fiflobe,  and  his  celebrated  beer  has  2;ained  an  international 
popuhirity  of  the  most  universal  character. 

The  foundation  of  this  representative  of  one  of  our  great 
industries  was  laid  in  1840  by  Adam  Lemp,  the  father  of  Wm. 
J.  Lemp,  the  pioneer  brewer  of  St.  Louis.  His  institution 
was  very  small  and  calculated  only  to  supply  the  retail  demand. 
It  was  located  on  Second  Street,  between  Walnut  and  Elm, 
and  had  a  capacity  for  one  hundred  barrels  per  year.  Being 
an  experienced  brewer,  having  obtained  his  knowledge  of  the 
business  before  leaving  the  Fatherland,  he  made  an  excellent 
article  considering  the  imperfect  machinery  in  use  at  that  time. 
His  facilities  were  gradually  increased,  and  a  storehouse  be- 
came necessary,  which  he  shortly  afterwards  secured  by  the 
discovery  of  a  natural  cave  under  Wm.  J.  Lemp's  present 
brewery,  corner  of  Second  Carondelet  Avenue  and  Cherokee 
Street,  a  locality  which  Avas  little  else  than  a  wilderness  at  the 
date  of  its  first  occupancy.  The  business  progressed  gradu- 
ally with  no  very  important  changes  until  August  25,  1862, 
when  Mr.  Lemp  died,  and  the  brewery  descended  to  his  son, 
Wm.  J.,  who,  though  a  young  man,  assumed  the  responsibility 
and  entered  upon  his  duties  with  an  enterprising  and  liberal 
spirit  which  rapidly  developed  the  business.  He  exhibited  an 
energy  that  soon  established  a  trade  so  large  that  the  capacity 
of  his  brewery  was  unequal  to  the  demand,  and  in  1864  he  re- 
located the  brewery  where  it  now  stands.  Since  that  date 
every  year  has  seen  an  extension  of  his  trade  and  the  erection 
of  new  buildings,  the  introduction  of  new  improvements,  and 
the  extension  of  facilities,  until  now  Wm.  J.  Lemp's  Western 
Brewery  is  not  only  the  largest  and  finest  in  St.  Louis,  but 
one  of  the  most  capacious  in  the  world.  The  buildings  are  of 
the  most  substantial  character,  and  under  the  brewery,  extend- 
ing to  a  depta  of  fifty  feet,  are  twenty-five  immense  cellars, 
with  a  storage  capacity  for  fifty  thousand  barrels.  The  build- 
ings are  compactly  built  and  cover  nearly  two  entire  squares, 
in  addition  to  which  there  are  four  ice-houses  on  the  Levee, 
each  of  which  has  a  capacity  for  five  thousand  tons,  and  built 
so  as  to  receive  the  cargoes  of  Mr.  Lemp's  ice  barges  in  the 
most  expeditious  manner. 

The  brewery  is  kept  running  night  and  day,  from  one  year  to 


BREWERIES.  277 

another,  producing  annually  over  one  hundred  thousand  barrel? 
of  beer,  and  yet  the  demand  so  far  exceeds  the  capacity  of  the 
brewery  to  supply  that  further  large  additions  arc  necessary 
and  will  be  made  before  the  year  expires.  The  business  trans- 
acted by  Wm.  J.  Lemp  is  nearly  one  million  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars  each  year,  and  yet  his  system  is  such  that  he 
knows  where  every  dollar  of  this  vast  sum  is  placed  and  every 
barrel  of  his  beer  is  used.  His  office  at  the  brewery  has  tele- 
graph connections  with  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  ship- 
ments of  his  product  are  made  in  his  own  refrigerator  cars, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  in  number. 

During  the  last  year  Mr.  Lemp  has  added  a  bottling  de- 
partment to  his  brewery,  with  a  capacity  for  putting  up  twelve 
thousand  bottles  daily,  Avhich  will  soon  be  increased  to  one  hun- 
dred thousand  daily,  as  the  demand  for  his  bottled  beer,  coming 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  is  enlarging  so  rapidly  that  it  is 
impossible  now  to  fill  the  orders.  Lemp's  beer  is  now  sold 
regularly  in  all  the  ports  of  South  America,  in  Calcutta,  Yoko- 
hama, Yeddo,  Hawaii,  Shanghai,  Sidney  and  Melbourne,  Aus- 
tralia, the  West  Indies,  and  the  large  cities  of  America,  while 
large  quantities  are  sent  to  London,  Paris,  Berlin  and  other 
European  cities.  No  brewery  in  the  world  produces  a  finer 
and  more  delicious  beer  than  Lemp's,  and  its  superiority 
has  been  repeatedly  acknowledged  by  aAvards  at  all  the  State 
fairs  held  in  the  Union  and  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition. 

The  unparalleled  success  of  the  Western  Brewery  is  due  en- 
tirely to  the  rare  business  intelligence  of  Mr.  Lemp,  who,  as- 
suming the  responsibility  of  a  small  concern  Avhen  young  in 
years,  has  developed  and  expanded  a  trade  distinctively  his 
own,  until  now  he  is  the  largest  brewer  in  the  West,  with  a 
purpose,  sure  of  attainment,  of  being  the  largest  and  most 
successful  brewer  in  America ;  already  Lemp's  brewery  is 
the  lariiest  manufactory  of  any  character  under  a  single  pro- 
prietor west  of  New  York. 


BREWERIES.  279 

THE   E.  ANHEUSER  CO.'S  BREWING  ASSOCIATION. 

The  present  age  is  indeed  a  busy  and  progressive  one, 
with  competition  in  all  lines  of  business  so  energetic  as  to 
aptly  illustrate  the  slightly  modified  adage,  "Eternal  perse- 
verance is  the  price  of  success."  Especially  true  is  the  sayino- 
when  applied  to  the  West,  where  strict  adherence  to  purpose 
and  the  exercise  of  brain  and  muscle  are  the  sole  reliances,  as 
contradistinguished  from  the  East,  where  lineage  is  made  the 
chief  corner-stone  of  success.  The  Western  business  man 
never  lays  down  the  heated  iron  to  moralize  upon  accomplished 
facts,  but  strikes  the  blows  and  then  allows  the  facts  to  speak 
for  themselves. 

While  the  general  public  is  crying  and  bewailing  the 
strmgency  of  the  times,  the  energetic  portion  of  the  comnmnity 
is  busily  engaged,  the  evidences  of  live  investments  and 
encroaching  prosperity  being  noticeable  on  every  side.  But 
thus  is  the  world  divided ;  the  idle  are  complaining,  while  the 
industrious  are  rushed  fairly  day  and  night  to  supply  the 
demand  for  the  products  of  their  labor.  An  increase  of 
facilities  is  the  true  index  of  prosperity,  and  this  proposition 
being  self-evident,  the  success  of  the  E.  Anheuser  Company's 
Brewing  Association,  measured  by  their  recent  large  improve- 
ments, is  so  signal  as  to  make  that  institution  worthy  of  pub- 
lic recognition. 

From  an  humble  beginning  a  few  years  ago,  this  now 
colossal  institution  has  spread  its  commercial  fingers  and 
grasped  a  territory  of  trade  whose  limits  are  described  only 
by  the  expanse  of  oceans  and  the  confines  of  continents. 
From  a  small  building  it  has  expanded  its  works  until  they 
now  occupy  seven  acres  of  ground,  bounded  by  Pestalozzi, 
Arsenal,  Eighth  and  Ninth  streets,  and  include  ten  immense 
buildings  of  an  imposing  appearance,  each  of  which  is  crowded 
to  its  full  capacity. 

The  business  of  the  Anheuser  Brewery  has  increased  so 
rapidly  tliat  a  force  of  men  is  almost  constantly  engaged 
erecting  new  additions,  and  yet  the  orders,  coming  in  from 
all  parts  of  the  globe  in  continuous  flow,  are  always  in  excess 
of  the  ability  of  the  brewery  to  supply.     Among  the  new 


280  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

structures  completed  on  the  first  of  January  last  are  the 
refrigerating  beer  vault,  a  new  bottling  house,  and  the  office, 
three  Iniildings,  which  are  substantial  ornaments  to  the  city. 
The  beer  vault  is  constructed  after  a  new  design,  and  is  an 
illustration  of  the  originality  of  the  proprietors.  It  is  built 
of  solid  masonry  and  brick,  the  walls  being  thirty  inches  in 
thickness.  It  is  two  stories  in  height,  each  story  being  twenty 
feet  in  the  clear.  The  first  floor  is  laid  with  heavy  granite 
flag-stones,  and  contains  the  fermenting  tubs,  and  two  tiers 
of  lager  beer  casks,  one  of  sixty  and  the  other  of  forty  casks, 
each  cask  having  a  capacity  for  sixty  barrels.  The  second 
floor  is  of  iron,  on  which  an  immense  quantity  of  ice  is  packed, 
from  whicji  draughts  of  air  constantly  descend  through  con- 
duits in  the  walls  to  the  first  floor,  by  Avhich  the  contents  of 
the  huge  casks  are  kept  at  a  uniformly  very  low  temperature. 

The  new  bottlino;  house  is  a  buildinc;  a]:»out  two  hundred 
feet  long  and  thirtj^  broad,  provided  with  apparatus  for  putting 
up  one  hundred  thousand  bottles  of  beer  daily,  being  the 
largest  capacity  of  any  bottling  establishment  in  the  world. 
And  yet  enormous  as  this  amount  is,  the  demand  far  exceeds 
the  supply,  and  another  bottling-house  the  same  size  will  be 
built  this  year. 

The  ofiice  is  one  of  the  finest  and  most  tastefully  appointed 
of  any  in  the  city,  and  bears  the  characteristics  of  the  presi- 
dent's ofiice  of  a  large  bank.  It  is  Gothic  in  the  exterior, 
with  small  Doric  sky-lights  and  modern  wmdows,  and  antique 
decorations.  The  floor  is  of  tessellated  marble,  and  the 
furniture  is  of  the  most  exquisite  workmanship,  and  elegantly 
veneered.  The  private  ofiice  of  Mr.  Adolphus  Busch,  the 
Secretary  and  Manager  of  the  Association,  is  simply  sump- 
tuous, with  its  beautifully  designed  and  immaculate  marble 
mantel,  Axminster  carpets,  ornamented  French  plate  glass, 
luxurious  chairs,  elegant  paintings,  etc.  In  addition  to  its 
handsome  appointment,  the  ofiice  is  provided  with  every  pos- 
sii)le  convenience,  including  a  large  iron  vault  for  valuables, 
lavatories,  toilet  rooms,  etc.,  with  an  arrangement  for  expe- 
diting business  unsurpassed. 

The  E.  Anheuser  Association  was  the  first  corporation  in 
America  to  inaugurate  the  business  of  bottling  beer  for  export, 


BREWERIES.  281 

and  in  this  special  line  their  success  has  been  so  distiniruished 
as  to  excite  the  most  dishonorable  competition,  viz:  the 
attempted  imitation  of  its  trade-marks  bj  opposing  brewin<T 
companies  in  other  cities.  The  Anheuscr  bottled  beer  is  now 
found  among  every  civilized  nation,  including  the  most  fash- 
ionable cafes  of  the  world.  Wherever  used  it  has  won  its 
way  to  favor  and  preference  against  the  beer  product  of  all 
other  breweries,  and  has  insinuated  its  cheering  properties  into 
the  African  of  Cape  Colony,  the  IMongolian  of  Hong  Kong 
and  Shanghai,  the  Hindoos  of  Calcutta,  the  INIalays  of  Singa- 
pore, the  Japanese  of  Ycddo,  the  Sandwich  Islanders  of 
Hawaii,  and  even  John  Bull  in  his  own  historic  club-houses 
has  snuffed  its  delicious  aroma,  while  the  dignitaries  have  been 
unable  to  withstand  its  delectable  flavor,  which  is  particularly 
requisite  in  the  drafting  of  diplomatic  Anglo-Russian  nego- 
tiations. 

The  ramifications  and  magnitude  of  the  business  of  this 
Association  are  almost  inconceivably  great.  Refusing  to 
restrict  itself  to  the  ordinary  transportation  facilities  offered 
by  railroads,  the  Association  built  and  is  now  running  one 
hundred  and  ten  of  its  own  refrigerating  cars  over  the  diflerent 
roads,  and  has  constructed  its  own  side  tracks  on  the  Iron 
Mountain  Railroad  to  expedite  its  business.  It  employs  ten 
expert  clerks  in  the  main  office,  and  nearly  three  hundred  men 
in  the  manufacture  of  the  inspiriting  beverage.  The  invest- 
ment of  the  Association  approximates  one  million  dollars,  and 
its  sales  of  beer  about  the  same  amount  annually,  the  sales  of 
bottled  beer  alone  last  year  reaching  the  enormous  sum  of 
eight  hundred  thousand  dollars.  At  the  present  ratio  of 
increase,  the  indications  point  strongly  towards  Anheuser's 
beins:  the  largest  brewery  in  the  world  in  the  next  five  years. 

In  further  proof  of  the  cosmopolitan  favoritism  of  the 
Anheuser  beer,  the  fact  is  stated  that  they  have  open  accounts 
with  and  make  regular  shipments  to  parties  in  jNIelbournc  and 
Sidney,  Australia,  Valparaiso,  Rio  Grand  del  Sul,  Rio  Janerio, 
Bahia,  and  various  cities  in  Peru,  United  States  of  Colombia 
and  Brazil,  in  fact  extending  over  the  whole  of  South  America, 
Mexico  and  the  West  Indies,  and  wherever  the  beer  has  been 
sold  its  superiority  has  been  proven  by  the  constant  increase 


282  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

of  orders.  Its  high  favor  with  our  owti  people  is  demon- 
strated by  the  numerous  awards  it  has  received  at  the  State 
fairs  of  the  Union  and  the  Centennial  exhibition. 

In  the  notice  of  the  Association,  no  particular  mention  has 
been  made  of  its  immense  ice  houses,  coopering  shops,  malt 
houses,  store-rooms,  shipping  departments,  engine  houses, 
coal  bins,  etc.,  etc.,  as  our  province  is  chiefly  to  show  up  St. 
Louisas  she  stands  in  a  business  relation  to  the  outside  v»^orld. 

Mr.  Busch,  who  is  the  representative  head  of  the  Anheuser 
Brewing  Company,  is  a  comparatively  young  man  and  a 
gentleman  of  the  most  affjible  disposition,  but  his  ability  as  a 
business  man  ranks  as  high  as  that  of  an}'  in  St.  Louis.  He 
not  only  thoroughly  understands  the  brewing  business,  but 
also  combines  a  practical  and  original  knowledge  which,  in  its 
utility,  places  him  in  the  advance  of  his  competitors,  and 
makes  them  his  imitators.  He  has  entire  control  of  the 
brewery,  directs  its  business,  makes  all  the  contracts,  handles 
its  funds  and  carries  all  its  responsibilities  on  his  own  shoulders. 
The  success  of  his  naanagement  is  best  told  and  illustrated  in 
the  former  descriptive  part  of  this  article,  which  ranks  him 
among:  the  best  commercial  men  of  the  West. 


THE  AMERICAN  WINE  COMPANY. 

In  the  Avar  waged  by  the  great  temperance  crusaders 
against  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors,  wine  needs  no  defence. 
Nay,  blessed  syrup  of  the  luscious  grape,  sweet  nectar  of  the 
gods,  the  argument  is  in  the  beauty  of  thy  bead  and  delightful 
influence  of  thy  sovereignty.  The  mightiest  and  most  sublime 
products  of  the  pen  were  inspired  by  thy  mellifluous  grace  and 
subtle  invocation  ;  by  thy  aid  man's  power  has  become  un- 
abridged, and  cities  have  risen  to  empires  under  thy  delecta- 
ble enthusiasm.  Delicious  auxiliary  of  all  pleasure ;  song 
creator,  beauty's  best  adornment,  thy  defence  is  in  the  sweet 
perfection  of  thy  invigorating  efl*ects. 


WINES. 


283 


Wine  has,  from  the  earliest  record  of  antiquity,  formed  no 
small  part  of  the  Avorld's  commerce,  and  its  use  was  general 
among  all  the  highest  races  of  civilization.  The  poets,  law- 
givers, orators,  painters,  novelists  and  historians  are  all  de- 
scended from  a  wine-drinking  people,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  nomads  of  the  South,  the  savages  of  the  East,  and  untu- 
tored warriors  of  the  North  lived  in  barbarism,  without  civili- 
zation, without  happiness,  and  without  wine. 


^^^Q\A[y 


The  manufacture  of  this  most  deligfhtful  of  all  drinks  is  of 
recent  date  in  Missouri,  the  first  distillation  being  about  18.00. 
As  early  as  1853  the  Missouri  Wine  Company  was  manufac- 
turing what  was  then  considered  a  good  quality  of  wine,  but 
as  compared  with  Cook's  Imperial  of  to-day  was  a  very  poor 
beverage.  In  1859  the  American  Wine  Compuny  was 
established  in  this  city,  and  it  is  to  that  corporation  the  State 
is  indebted  for  the  development  of  one  of  its  now  most  im])ort- 
ant  industries — the  demonstration  of  the  adaptability  of  the 
soil  of  the  State  for  the  production  of  the  best  vintage  on  the 
continent. 

The  American  Wine  Company  is  an  organization  of  large 
capital,  with  facilities  for  manufacturing  more  than  five  hun- 
dred thousand  bottles  annually ,  and  their  product  finds  ready 
sales,  a  larger  part  l)eiug  consumed  by  New  York,  where  Cook's 
Imperial  has  the  best  reputation  of  any  wines  sold  in  that 
market.  At  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  18G7  this  company's 
champagne  received  honorable  mention  in  competition  with  all 


284  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  French  wines,  and  a  diploma  was  sent  them  for  fine  flavor. 
The  American  committee  were  so  surprised  at  the  excellence 
of  Cook's  wines  that  they  confessed  to  a  higher  estimation  of 
the  possibilities  and  attainments  of  American  wdnes.  Ship- 
ments of  Missouri  wines  are  now  frequently  sent  to  Germany, 
where  they  are  regarded  with  special  favor  by  the  best  German 
judges,  with  a  constantly  increasing  popularity. 

The  office  of  the  American  "Wine  Company  is  at  No.  119 
Olive  Street,  but  the  cellars,  where  the  immense  product  of 
the  concern  is  stored,  are  on  the  corner  of  Cass  and  Garrison 
avenues.  These  cellars  are  three  stories  in  depth,  cover 
nearly  one  block  of  ground,  and  employ  sixty  men.  The  cap- 
ital in  active  use  by  the  company  is  nearly  two  millions  of 
dollars,  the  establishment  being  the  largest  of  the  kind  in  this 
country. 

To  speak  of  the  American  Wine  Company  without  men- 
tioning Isaac  Cook,  the  President,  would  be  like  exalting  wine 
that  had  lost  its  flavor.  Mr.  Cook  was  the  organizer  of  the 
company,  and  has  remained  its  active  president  ever  since. 
Being  a  man  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  importance  of  the 
interests  he  represents,  and  with  a  purpose  to  bring  his  wines 
to  the  very  acme  of  popularity,  he  has  relied  upon  the  purity 
of  the  vintage,  and  ever  refused  to  use  the  slightest  deleterious 
ingredient.  He  makes  his  wines  in  the  glass,  by  the  same 
process  used  in  the  champagne  districts  of  Europe,  and  its 
great  purity  has  made  it  preferable  to  European  wines,  even 
in  the  wine  districts  of  France,  Germany,  Spain,  and  other 
countries.  Cook's  Imperial  has  a  reputation  co-extensive  with 
the  nation,  and  wherever  drunk  it  sows  seeds  of  preference, 
which  bear  fruit  in  great  popularity  and  exclusive  use. 


LIQUORS.  285 

WOOD  &  LEE.— Wholesale  Liquors. 

In  writing  of  a  new  firm  little  can  be  said  except  in  the  for- 
mation of  a  judgment,  based  upon  the  previous  business  relation 
of  the  partners,  concerning  the  success  of  their  undertaking, 
and  having  a  knowledge  of  their  worthiness,  conunend  them 
to  the  favor  of  the  public. 

The  partnership  of  Joel  Wood  and  W.  H.  Lee  was  consum- 
mated under  the  firm  name  of  AVood  &  Lee,  on  the  first  of 
May,  the  present  year — 1878 — and  established  at  No.  218 
Walnut  Street.  While  the  partnership  is  a  new  one,  the  part- 
ners are  old  in  the  business  they  have  re-engaged  in,  viz  :  dis- 
tillers, rectifiers  and  wholesale  liquor  dealers.  Both  were 
former  employees  of  Samuel  McCartney  &  Co.,  and  since  the 
year  1874  members  of  the  firm  of  Tyra  Hill  &,  Co.,  to  whom 
they  are  successors. 

It  is  important  that  the  public  should  be  informed  of  the 
fact  that  notwithstanding  the  comprehensive  scope  of  the  great 
whisky  ring,  which  included  nearly  every  distiller  in  St.  Louis, 
the  firm  of  Tyra  Hill  &  Co.  continued  doing  a  legitimate 
business,  and  refused  most  positively  to  enter  the  unlawful 
combination,  although  it  was  impossible  for  a  "straight" 
dealer  to  continue  business  without  losing  money.  When 
their  distillery  was  examined  by  the  government  officials  the 
members  of  the  firm  were  credited  for  their  honesty,  and  the 
report  of  the  inspection  was  most  flattering  to  the  firm. 

Messrs.  Wood  &  Lee  have  a  very  large  business  which  they 
retain  from  the  old  firm,  and  it  is  their  determination  to  win 
the  most  honorable  reputation  that  can  be  achieved.  They 
have  already  the  credit  of  turning  out  the  purest  liquors  of  any 
house  in  St.  Louis,  and  their  aim  will  be  directed  towards  a 
position  honorably  in  advance  of  all  competition. 

Their  new  place  of  business  has  been  fitted  up  with  every 
appliance  to  facilitate  transactions,  and  their  ofiice  is  one  of 
the  neatest  and  most  convenient  in  the  city. 

The  firm  of  Wood  &  Lee  re-embark  in  business  under  the 
most  favorable  auspices,  and,  having  already  won  a  most  envia- 
ble reputation  for  honorable  dealing,  success  will  undoubtedly 
attend  them. 


286 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


DAVID    NICHOLSON. — Importer  of  and  Dealer  in 
Teas,  Wines,  and  Liquors. 

One  of  the  earliest  pioneers  in  the  grocery  trade  of  St. 
Louis  is  David  Nicholson,  who  established  his  business  here  in 
1843,  when  our  city  had  a  population  of  only  thirty-four  thou- 
sand souls.  Mr.  Nicholson  started  out  in  life  with  modest  pre- 
tensions and  small  capital,  but  l)y  the  application  of  strict  and 
conscientious  principles  he  has  built  up  a  grocery  business  of 
a  cosmopolitan  and  national  character.  For  nearly  thirty 
years  Mr.  Nicholson  has  been  acknowledged  the  largest  im- 
porter of  foreign  merchandise  and  of  his  line  of  goods  in  St. 
Louis,  and  yet  he  draws  regularly  upon  the  productions  of 
nearly  every  State  in  the  Union.     Aside  of  the  fact  that  the 


stock  carried  by  Mr.  Nicholson  is  the  most  complete  that  can 
be  found  west  of  New  York,  his  special  pride  centers  in  the 
character  of  the  goods  he  handles.  In  this  age  of  unscru- 
pulous counterfeiting  and  injurious  preparations  and  adultera- 
tion the  imposition  practiced  on  the  public,  both  in  the  quality 
and  short  weight  of  the  articles  sold,  is  almost  past  belief. 
In  this  connection  it  is  but  justice  to  state  that  Mr.  Nicholson 
has  never,  under  any  circumstances,  given  countenance  to 
such  frauds  in  the  trade,  but  at  the  risk  of  being  called 
high-priced  he  has  obstinately  refused  to  handle  any  goods 


SALT.  287 

except  the  strictly  genume,  and,  in  consequence  of  the  adop- 
tion of  such  a  well-advised  policy,  he  has  a  reputation  that  has 
secured  for  him  the  best  trade,  not  only  of  St.  Louis,  l)ut  that 
of  an  immense  section  of  country  tributary  to  our  city. 

Mr.  Nicholson's  is  acknowledged  as  headquarters  l)y  the 
trade  for  the  finest  brands  of  foreign  champagnes,  foreign 
fancy  groceries,  etc.,  and  he  is  also  the  sole  agent  for  the  city 
for  the  E.  Anheuser  Brewing  Association's  Bottled  Beer,  and  is 
rapidly  developing  an  immense  trade  for  this  delicious  bever- 
age, in  addition  to  which  he  deals  largely  in  the  finest  wines 
and  liquors,  both  foreign  and  domestic. 


G.  L.  JOY  &  CO. — Foreign  and  Domestic  Salt. 

The  salt  trade  of  St.  Louis  has  grown  rapidly  during  the 
last  ten  years,  until  now  she  has  become  one  of  the  great  salt 
distributing:  cities  of  America.  Not  that  she  is  in  the  midst 
of  large  salt  mines  or  specially  situated  to  handle  the  salt 
product,  but  because  she  is  the  focal  center  of  the  West  and 
has  citizens  with  the  enterprise  to  grasp  the  necessities  of  the 
new  empire. 

In  1865,  G.  L.Joy,  now  one  of  our  wealthiest  and  most 
prominent  citizens,  came  to  St.  Louis  as  a  representative  of 
the  Ohio  River  Salt  Company.  He  introduced  their  salt  so 
successfully  that  in  a  short  time  it  superseded  all  others,  and 
gained  a  reputation  co-extensive  with  the  West.  Mr.  Joy 
continued  his  connection  with  the  company  until  1873,  when 
he  established  an  independent  house,  the  office  of  which  is  at 
No.  122  Olive  Street,  and  subsequently  took  in  as  a  partner 
Mr.  D.  H.  Chapman,  under  the  firm  name  of  G.  L.  Joy  &  Co., 
by  which  it  is  still  known. 

The  house  thus  organized  has  grown  until  it  is  now  one  of 
the  largest  dealing  in  this  specialty  in  this  country.  Mr.  Joy 
and  John  Jackson,  Esq.,  labored  together  zealously  for  the 


288  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

construction  of  a  salt  elevator,  which  was  at  length  built  by 
the  St.  Louis  Salt  Warehouse  Company,  in  which  Mr.  Joy  is 
a  large  stockholder,  and  is  an  important  adjunct  to  St.  Louis 
commerce.  The  elevator  is  situated  on  the  levee  at  the  foot 
of  Bremen  Avenue,  with  branch  tracks  of  the  St.  Louis,  Kan- 
sas City  &  Northern  Railijoad  running  through  it,  and  has  all 
the  auxiliaries  for  loading  and  unloading  barges,  with  a 
capacity  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  barrels.  It  has 
five  floors  and  two  steam  elevators,  one  for  bulk  and  the  other 
for  barrel  salt,  and  is  jointly  occupied  by  G.  L.  Joy  &  Co. 
and  H.  Rogers  &  Co.,  storage  charges  being  paid  by  each  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  of  salt  handled. 

The  firm  of  G.  L.  Joy  &  Co.  deal  in  all  barrel  and  bulk 
salt  of  the  Ohio  River  Company,  and  handle  Michigan  and 
New  York.  Among  the  foreign  salts  the  firm  deals  largely  in, 
are  the  English,  Turk's  Island  and  Ground  Alum  brands,  and 
they  supply  nearly  all  the  packers  in  the  South  and  Southwest. 
The  house  has  also  a  warehouse  at  No.  218  Spruce  Street, 
where  a  large  supply  is  kept  for  the  city  trade,  while  from  the 
elevator  no  shipments  are  made  except  in  cargo  lots.  Their 
sales  include  annually  three  hundred  thousand  barrels  of  the 
Ohio  River  product,  besides  an  immense  amount  of  foreign 
and  lake  salt. 

Mr.  Joy  is  a  gentleman  of  liberal  ideas  and  large  means, 
and  he  has  devoted  his  best  endeavors  to  the  interest  of  St. 
Louis,  in  which  his  labors  have  been  so  valuable  as  to  entitle 
him  to  the  distinguished  consideration  of  every  citizen  inter- 
ested in  the  city's  development. 


GAFF,  FLEISCHMANN  &  CO.— Co^^ipressed  Yeast. 

One  of  the  great  articles  of  the  day,  that  has  accomplished 
a  revolution  in  the  manufacture  of  the  most  staple  of  h,o use- 
hold  necessaries — bread — is  GaflT,  Freischmann  &  Co.'s  com- 
pressed yeast.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  herald  a  triumph  in 
domestic  art  so  unequivocal,  so  pronounced  and  general  in  its 


COMPRESSED    YEAST.  289 

beneficent  operation  and  influence.  For  ages  one  of  the  sore 
distresses  of  every  people  was  that  superinduced  by  unpahita- 
ble  and  unwholesome  bread.  By  the  methods  no\vemi)loyed, 
and  the  use  of  this  most  celebrated  of  all  compressed  yeasts, 
the  manufacture  of  bread  has  spread  into  other  channels,  and 
the  staff  of  life  changed  from  a  soggy,  nauseous,  and  indigest- 
ible article  to  the  most  delightful,  healthy,  nutritious  and 
delicious  delicacy.  The  points  of  precedence  and  superiority 
of  this  prime  adjunct  to  our  table  pleasures  may  be  briefly 
summed  up  as  follows  : 

The  Gaff,  Fleischmann  &  Co.'s  com^Dressed  yeast  is  as  near 
perfection  as  can  be  attained. 

It  is  the  product  of  nature,  being  manufactured  from  ex- 
tracts of  the  most  carefully  selected  grains. 

Owing  to  its  purity  and  remarkable  qualities,  the  efficiency 
of  the  work  it  performs,  and  the  rapidity  with  which,  by  its 
simplicity,  it  enables  the  operator  to  prepare  the  best  bread, 
it  at  once  becomes  the  favorite  in  every  household.  By  its 
use  better  and  more  healthful  bread  can  be  made  from  third- 
grade  flour  in  two  hours  than  from  first-grade  flour  bv  the  old 
method  or  other  yeast,  which  requires  from  ten  to  fifteen 
hours. 

This  desirable  result  of  economy  in  time,  labor  and  care, 
is  not  effected  by  the  use  of  any  deleterious  ingredient,  so 
often  found  in  other  yeasts,  but  is  owing  entirely  to  its  purity 
and  the  scientific  principles  of  its  manufacture.  Lastly,  this 
is  the  only  yeast  that  is  supplied  fresh  daily  to  grocers. 

The  general  agent  for  this  superior  yeast  in  St.  Louis  is 
Mr.  C.  C.  Leathers,  whose  establishment  at  No.  809  Wash- 
ington Avenue  is  the  center  of  a  large  and  rapidly  increasin«- 
trade.  Mr.  Leathers  has  every  arrangement  perfected  for 
supplying  the  trade  daily  with  fresh  yeast.  Orders  from  out- 
side are  filled  by  express.  The  trade  will  find  Mr.  Leathers 
in  every  way  qualified  in  enterprise,  energy,  liberality  and 
business  sagacity  to  advance  the  important  interest  under  hia 
manao-ement. 


19 


290 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


DOZIER,  WEYL  &  CO.— Bread,  Crackers  and 
Jumbles  . 

While  St.  Louis  is  the  receiving  and  distributing  center  of 
the  grain  products  of  the  West,  she  is  also  the  great  manu- 
facturing city,  musical  with  the  hum  of  her  immense  mills  and 
steams  bakeries,  in  the  conversion  of  the  rich  cereals  of  the 
Rocky  Mountain  empire  into  the  finest  bread,  most  palatable 
crackers  and  delicious  confections,  with  which  to  feed  the 
nation. 

The  truly  representative  bakery  of  St.  Louis,  and,  indeed, 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  is  that  of  Dozier,  Weyl  &  Co.,  whose 


immense  factory  is  located  on  the  corner  of  Pine  and  Sixth 
streets,  occupying  one-quarter  of  the  block.  Their  l)usiness 
was  established  as  early  as  1848,  in  the  same  building  they  now 
occupy,  but  several  very  important  additions  have  been  made  in 
the  necessary  process  of  enlargement,  taking  in  one  large  three- 
story  building  forty  feet  wide  by  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet  in 
depth.  Besides  the  addition  of  buildings,  the  firm  has  put  in 
four  large  revolving  reel-ovens  and  other  important  adjuncts, 
until  the  bakery  employs  a  small  army  of  expert  bakers,  and 
has  a  capacity  for  turning  out  fifteen  hundred  barrels  of 
crackers   daily.      A  very  important  adjunct  to  the  immense 


BAKERIES.  291 

cracker  business  of  Dozier,  Weyl  &  Co.  is  their  extensive 
manufacture  of  bread,  pies,  cakes,  jumbles,  etc.,  on  which 
their  reputation  is  unequaled.  In  the  month  of  INIay  hist, 
the  firm  purchased  at  a  very  large  cost,  one  of  Holmes' 
Soft  Cake  and  Jumble  Machines,  with  the  exclusive  right  lo 
the  State  of  Missouri.  With  these  machines  they  are  enabled 
to  manufacture  the  most  delicious  cakes  and  jumbles  ever 
made ;  such  as  cocoanut,  honey,  butter,  sugar,  chocolate, 
spice,  prize  jumbles,  etc.  ;  chocolate  cakes,  honey  cakes, 
gem  cakes,  banana  fingers,  cocoanut  drops,  cocoanut,  French 
and  almond  macaroons,  and  a  hundred  other  confections  and 
rich  condiments  never  before  offered  to  the  "Western  trade. 
They  retail  at  from  ten  cents  per  dozen  to  twenty  cents  per 
pound,  and  are  incomparable  for  the  use  of  families,  picnics, 
and  excursions.  The  introduction  of  this  new  machine  is  but 
another  illustration  of  the  enterprize  and  vigor  which  has 
characterized  the  firm  since  its  organization,  and  evidences  the 
determination  of  the  proprietors  to  place  themselves  in  the  van 
of  all  competition  in  America. 

Dozier,  Weyl  &  Co,  have  a  retail  department  in  connection 
with  their  factory,  the  trade  of  which  is  double  that  of  any 
other  retail  bakery  in  the  West,  and  the  reputation  of  their 
product  is  such  that  thousands  of  families  in  the  city  rely  upon 
the  firm  entirely  for  fine  cakes,  bread,  etc.  In  the  wholesale 
business  their  trade  extends  from  St.  Paul  to  the  Gulf,  and 
from  Indiana  to  the  Pacific  coast.  The  proprietors,  consisting 
of  James  Dozier  and  his  two  sons,  L.  D.  and  J.  T.  Dozier, 
and  A.  Weyl,  are  all  eminently  practical  in  their  business,  and 
have  made  a  large  success  out  of  a  small  beginning.  The 
sales  of  the  house  now  aggregate  five  hundred  thousand  dollars 
annually,  and  at  the  present  rate  of  increase  will  reach  one 
million  dollars  annually  before  the  next  two  years. 


292  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

JOSEPH  GAENEAU.— Crackers. 

Among  the  earliest  of  the  living  pioneers  of  St.  Louis, 
who  have  made  our  commerce  and  great  wealth,  is  Joseph 
Garneau,  a  name  familiar  throughout  the  North,  South  and 
West.  His  advent  mto  commercial  life  was  made  in  1832,  in 
a  most  unpretentious  and  indeed  humble  beginning,  first  occu- 
pying the  old  house  which  still  stands  on  the  corner  of  the  alley 
on  Vine,  between  Second  and  Third  streets.  How  many 
memories  must  cluster  round  the  ancient,  crumbling  structure 
m  which  Mr.  Garneau  laid  the  foundation  for  his  wealth  and 
present  trade.  It  was  here  that  he  baked  the  first  cracker 
and  loaf  of  bread  for  himself,  but  by  supplying  a  want  then 
fully  realized,  he  prospered  in  business,  and  from  year  to  year 
enlarged  his  facilities  to  meet  his  rapidly  growing  trade, 

Mr.  Garneau  made  several  moves,  each  time  into  more 
capacious  quarters,  until  at  length  in  1847  he  built  an  immense 
factory  at  the  corner  of  Seventeenth  and  Morgan  streets, 
providing  it  with  every  auxiliary  for  turning  out  crackers  in 
sufficient  quantities  to  supply  the  largest  prospective  demand, 
and  making  of  it  one  of  the  great  bakeries  of  the  country. 
The  factory,  when  run  to  its  full  capacity,  employs  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men  and  consumes  five  hundred  barrels  of  flour 
per  day.  Mr.  Garneau  manufactures  crackers,  English  bis- 
cuits, jumbles,  etc.,  such  as  the  soda,  oyster  and  sweet  crack- 
ers, ginger  snaps,  etc.,  in  which  line  he  has  no  superior  in  the 
United  States.  The  products  of  his  factory  find  ready  sales 
throughout  the  North,  West  and  South,  and  large  shipments  are 
now  being  made  to  the  West  Indies.  His  trade  extends  as  far 
north  as  Forts  Walsh  and  MacLeod,  south  as  far  as  San 
Antonio,  and  as  lar  west  as  New  Mexico. 

Garneau 's  crackers  have  a  most  enviable  reputation 
throughout  the  country,  and  have  done  much  toward  adver- 
tising the  importance  of  St.  Louis  as  a  manufacturing  city. 
Mr.  Garneau  is  not  only  one  of  the  oldest  citizens,  but 
a  pu})lic-spirited  gentleman,  whose  pride  is  no  less  in  the  city 
of  his  adoption  than  in  the  business  which  he  has  conducted 
so  successfully  for  the  period  of  forty-two  years.      He  has 


BAKERIES.  293 

associated  his  sons,  Joseph  Garneau,  Jr.,  and  James  W.  Gar- 
neau,  with  him  in  the  business,  and  with  the  example  he  has 
given  them  to  follow,  they  have  the  brightest  prospects  for  a 
successful  future. 


THE  VIENNA  MODEL  BAKERY. 

There  is  no  establishment  in  our  city  that  has  been  the 
source  of  more  enjoyment  or  has  pandered  to  a  more  testhctic 
taste  than  the  Vienna  Model  Bakery.  It  is  peculiarly  an 
institution  of  excellent  taste  and  refinement,  and  one  which 
supplied  a  want  not  understood  but  long  felt.  Its  first  intro- 
duction into  this  country  was  at  the  Centennial  Exposition, 
where  it  was  established  at  a  cost  of  sixty  thousand  dollars, 
and  proved  a  complete  success.  In  fact,  its  success  was  so 
gratifying  that  the  proprietors  at  once  conceived  the  idea  of 
making  it  a  permanent  institution  in  America,  and  to  this  end 
they  built  bakeries  of  the  same  character  in  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Chicago,  San  Francisco  and  St.  Louis. 

The  Vienna  Bakery,  as  we  now  know  it,  was  started  at 
No.  22  South  Fifth  Street,  May  5,  1877,  and  fitted  up  with 
an  elaboration  which  made  it  no  less  a  curiosity  than  a  sub- 
stantial benefit  and  pleasant  resort.  The  bread  manufactured 
was  so  far  superior  to  any  ever  before  made  in  this  country 
that  a  large  trade  was  directly  developed,  which  has  augmented 
rapidly  and  constantly  ever  since.  The  Vienna  Cafe  coffee 
became  no  less  celebrated  than  its  bread,  and  aristocratic 
people  gave  it  such  an  immense  patronage  as  to  encourage  the 
proprietors  to  remove  to  more  convenient  and  handsomer 
quarters.  Accordingly,  on  the  1st  of  March  a  removal  to  No. 
217  North  Fifth  Street  was  effected,  and  the  cafe  put  in  a  still 
more  elaborate  condition.  Centrally  located  as  it  now  is,  with 
a  most  enviable  reputation  among  our  best  citizens,  its  business 
has  become  enormous.  All  the  daily  papers  are  found  on  the 
tables  of  the  smoking-room,  where  gentlemen  can   partake  of 


294 


TOUR    or    ST.    LOUIS. 


the  luxury  of  a  partaga,  a  cup  of  coffee,  and  at  the  same  time 
interest  himself  with  the  news  of  the  world.  The  luncheon  or 
dinino--room  is  most  gorgeously  furnished  with  bent-wood  fur- 
niture, the  floors  handsomely  carpeted,  the  walls  hung  with 
beautiful  paintings,  and  the  room  is  fairly  filled  with  rare 
flowers,  which  exhale  their  sweet  odors.  Henry  A.  Fleisch- 
mann,  the  proprietor  and  manager,  was  one  of  the  proprietors 
of  the  Centennial  Model  Bakery,  and  is  a  gentleman  whom 
nature  qualified  for  the  business.  He  is  polished  in  his  manners 
and  of  the  most  graceful  disposition,  and  to  know  him  is  to  be- 
come his  patron.  He  always  has  a  kind  word  for  everybody 
and  the  cultivation  of  his  acquaintance  is  very  desirable.  St. 
Louis  is  proud  of  her  Vienna  Model  Bakery,  and  manifests  her 
appreciation  by  substantial  recognition. 


SPKAGUE  &  BUTLER. — Restaurateurs. 

One   of  the  greatest  blessings,  because  it  appeals  to  the 

most  appreciative  taste  and  con- 
sideration of  human  kind,  is  a 
dining  place,  at  which  the  de- 
sire of  a  strong  appetite  or  ween- 
ing indications  of  a  fastidious 
stomach  may  be  thoroughly 
satisfied.  Among  the  numer- 
ous restaurants  of  a  great  city 
[ike  St.  Louis  there  is  a  very 
.small  percentage  of  the  number 
that  furnishes  a  meal  worthy  of 
the  name.  These  are  no  longer 
jj^i'l  the  days  of  porridge  and  stir- 
about, but  the  age  is  one  of 
epicurean  taste,  when  the  palates 
of  jrood  livers  must  be  tickled 
&  with  delicious  preparations  ;  when 
the  restaurateur  must  needs  study 
to  please  and  experiment  in  the 


RESTAURANTS. 


295 


combination  of  luscious  adjuncts  to  attract  custom  and  hold  his 
patronage.  This  fact  is  no  where  better  illustrated  than  in  tlie 
elegant  dining-rooms  of  Messrs.  Sprague  &  Butler,  gentlemen 
whose  names  are  as  familiar  as  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
and  whose  restaurants  are  in  the  van  of  all  competition. 

Sprague  &,  Butler  established  their  business  as  early  as 
1859,  being  now  the  oldest  restaurant-keepers  in  St.  Louis. 
They  have  two  dining-rooms,  one  at  Nos.  319  and  321  Olive 
Street,  which  is  patronized  by  our  wealthiest  citizens,  and 
another  at  No.  716  North  Fifth  Street,  which,  wliile  less  preten- 
tious in  its  table  cVhote,  is  one  of  the  largest  dining-halls  in 
the  citv.  Here  elegantly  furnished  rooms  may  Ijc  obtained  at 
a  moderate  cost,  either  by  the  day,  week  or  month,  with 
every  possible  convenience  at  hand.  During  the  oyster 
season  their  houses  have  an  immense  patronage  for  the  succu- 
lent bivalves,  which  are  served  up  in  the  finest  styles,  and  at 
lower  prices  than  at  any  other 
restaurant  in  the  city.  At  the 
Olive  Street  place  there  is  a 
beautiful  parlor,  in  which  noth- 
ing'but  oysters  are  served,  and 
it  is  here  that  the  skill  and 
ingenuity  of  cooks  and  the 
keen  appreciation  of  the  oys- 
ter-loving public  is  elaborately 
demonstrated, 

Messrs.  Sprague  &  Butler 
are  o-entlemen  thorouirhlv  con- 
versant  with  their  business, 
and  their  eminent  superiority 
as  restaurateurs  is  best  evi- 
denced by  their  success.  They  ^i 
own  their  Olive  Street  build-  r.. 
ing,  and  have  each  accumu- 
lated what  many  would  call  a 

fortune,  but  yet  nothing  more  than  they  deserve,  for  they 
are  competent,  enterprising,  and  energetic  gcutlem.eu. 


296 


TOUR    or    ST.    LOUIS. 


MILFORD'S  RESTAURANT  AND  OYSTER  HOUSE. 

Every  man's  ability  is  best  evidenced  by  his  success  ;  and 
upon  this  just  measure  of  business  knowledge  Geo.  Milford, 
the  great  oyster  dealer,  becomes  conspicuous.  Hi^  history, 
commercially  speaking,  though  important,  is  briefly  recited. 
His  earliest  acquaintance  with  the  oyster  business  was  made 
as  an  employe  in  1857,  in  a  position  which  he  held  until  1863, 
when,  having  carefully  husbanded  his  means,  he  embarked  in 

the  business  for  himself, 
doing  a  wholesale  and  re- 
tail trade  in  a  small  store, 
;  the  site  of  which  is  now 
occupied  by  the  new 
Knapp  building.  He  re- 
mained there  nearly  four- 
teen years,  and  until  his 
business  outgrew  the  ca- 
pacity  of  his  old  store 
and  forced  him  into  more 
capacious  quarters.  In 
April,  1877,  he  rented 
and  removed  to  the  Finn 
building,  Nos.  116  and 
118  North  Third  Street, 
which  he  litted  up  ele- 
gantly and  where  he  is 
still  doing  business.  Hav- 
ing the  necessary  room,  Mr.  Milford  added  a  restaurant,  the 
dining-hall  of  which  is  palatial  and  provided  with  all  the 
auxiliaries  necessary  for  comfort,  attractiveness,  and  the  grati- 
fication of  guests.  His  patronage  is  very  large,  including 
nearly  all  the  prominent  members  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange 
and  many  other  wealthy  citizens,  all  of  whom  are  served 
royally. 

Popular  as  he  is  as  a  caterer  to  regular  guests,  Mr.  Mil- 
ford's  great  reputation  is  founded  on  the  oyster  business,  of 
which  he  continues  to  make  a  specialty.  For  the  past  fifteen 
years  he  has  stood  at  the  head  of  oyster  dealers  in  the  West, 


RESTAURANTS. 


•2\)7 


his  favorite  brands  being  found  in  hundreds  of  cities,  and 
everywhere  regarded  with  the  greatest  favor.  In  this  brancli 
of  his  extensive  business  his  sales  reacli  one  hundred  thousand 
dolhirs  annually,  and  every  year  the  amount  is  increased. 
Mr.  Milford  occupies  a  high  position  in  connnercial  circles  and 
bears  a  reputation  for  integrity,  affability,  and  thorough  com- 
prehension of  his  business,  which  stamps  him  "a  popular 
success." 


TONY  FAUST'S  CAFE  AND  OYSTER  HOUSE. 

Few  people  in  the  West  have  not  heard  of  Tony  Faust's 
resort,  and  fewer  still  of  those  who  come  to  St.  Louis  that  do 
not  visit  his  establishment.     This  noted  place  is  loc:ited  on 


the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Elm  streets,  inmiediatcly  in  the  rear 
of  the  Southern  Hotel  ruins,  made  conspicuous  by  an  innncnse 
and  ornamental  gas  lamp,  which,  when  lighted,  reflects  all 
the  primary  colors  blended  beautifully.  The  interior  of  the 
place,  comprising  three  very  large  rooms,  is  gorgeously  finished 


298  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

with  walnut  panels  and  plate-glass  mirrors,  which  image  the 
surroundings  in  multiplied  elegance.  It  is  here  the  visitor 
can  retire  to  a  private  position,  which  overlooks  the  attractive 
features  of  the  room  and  yet  reserves  a  certain  i)rivacy  to 
himself,  and  enjoy  the  finest  oysters  ever  introduced  into  this 
market;  delicate  brook  trout,  the  most  delicious  wines,  the 
excellent  Anheuser  beer,  a  fragrant  cigar,  or  any  of  those 
palatable  and  delicious  articles  which  make  our  appetites  so 
vigorous  and  unruly.  In  another  department  of  the  building, 
up-stairs,  there  are  parlors  for  ladies  and  gentlemen,  with 
entrance  on  Elm  Street,  which  are  beautifully  furnished,  and 
where  those  of  cultivated  tastes  can  enjoy. the  rarest  edibles 
in  the  most  perfect  manner.  Faust's  oysters  have  long  been 
considered  the  best  in  the  market,  and  every  year  only  serves 
to  increase  his  popularity.  Faust  makes  a  specialty  of  jobbing 
oysters,  in  which  line  he  is  the  largest  dealer  in  the  West,  his 
oysters  going  into  all  the  Western  States. 


BESSEHL'S  BAZAAR  AND  CURIOSITY  SHOP. 

There  are  few  places  on  the  continent,  or  even  in  the  grand- 
est cities  of  France  or  England,  equal  in  their  attractive  feat- 
ures to  Bessehl's  Picture  Gallery,  No.  5  North  Fifth  Street, 
this  city.  To  describe  it  faithfully  would  be  like  a  commentary 
walk  through  the  great  picture  bazaars  of  Europe,  and  would 
necessarily  occupy  a  book  in  itself ;  but  a  cursory  glimpse  at 
his  valuable  collection  will  be  sufficient  perhaps  to  comprehend 
the  scope  of  a  "Tour  through  St.  Louis."  Mr.  Emil  H.  Bes- 
sehl  started  business  here  a  great  many  3^ears  ago,  first  occu- 
pying the  first  floor  of  the  building  now  used  by  the  Times  Print- 
ing Company.  When  these  quarters  became  too  circumscribed 
for  his  patronage,  he  leased  his  present  building  and  arranged 
it  to  accord  with  public  taste,  and  has  made  of  it  a  resort,  the 
fame  of  which  has  many  times  crossed  the  ocean.  Since  Bes- 
sehl  is  supposed  to  be  actuated  by  no  other  purpose  than  to 
gratify  curiosity  and  elevate  i^sthetic  taste  and  culture,  we  will 


bessehl's.  299 

avail  ourselves  of  the  universally  free  admission  to  liis  gallery 
and  leisurely  examine  the  thousand  pictures  which  hang  grace- 
fully upon  the  walls.  Here  to  the  right  of  the  entrance  is  an 
elegant  frame,  clustered  w^ith  the  faces  of  all  the  proniiiiciit 
actors,  actresses  and  lecturers  in  the  world.  These  portraits 
are  very  fine,  and  present  in  almost  living  panorama,  tiie 
lieroes  whom  the  public  worship.  Moving  along  the  right  side 
the  sight  is  riveted  and  tickled  by  the  paintings  of  our  local 
statesmen,  each  well  adapted  to  his  vocation  and  true  to  his 
instincts.  Here  goes  Sexton  astride  of  a  fire  engine  with  full 
steam  on,  beating  Ten  Broeck's  time,  looking  out  for  future 
rewards  and  punishments.  That  triangular  gentleman  Hydes 
not  his  candle  under  a  bushel,  but  has  policy  in  his  vision  and 
bitter  things  in  his  quill.  The  hot-house  plant  so  conspicuous 
flourishes  well  in  Bain's  lappel,  and  adds  much  to  his  native 
grace.  This  is  Overstolz  that  sits  like  Canute  by  the  sea, 
looking  "peace,  be  still."  And  here  is  Bessehl  himself,  with 
florid  face  and  burgomaster  belt,  the  Falstaflian  character  of 
the  panoramic  drama;  his  face  wreathed  with  that  benign, 
sovereign,  plastic  exuberance  and  devotion  so  sweetly  ex- 
pressive of  that  classic  phrase  "  zwei  lager  ;"  and  so  on  through 
the  category  of  our  prominent  "socialists,"  each,  pcrha})s, 
caricatured,  and  yet  truthful  to  a  pervading  and  actuating 
idea. 

Now  we  approach  another  division  of  the  bazaar,  picturing 
life  in  bas  relief;  the  major,  having  an  eye  out  for  invitations, 
carelessly  holds  his  cane  and  well-worn  hat  in  one  hand  while 
with  the  other  he  gesticulates  most  gracefully  ;  his  bland  smile 
and  inclination  of  head  speak  eloquently  of  his  aspirations  and 
longings — he  evidently  desires  to  go  into  liquid-atioii.  This 
one  is  the  counterpart  of  a  ministerial  genius  whom  we  have 
all  seen,  directing  his  footsteps  towards  a  hopeful  contribution 
box.  Here  is  the  suave  man,  the  politician,  the  gormandizcM-, 
the  wine-loving  citizen,  the  unfortunate  tramp,  etc.  The  next 
division  includes  caricatures  on  the  popular  ballads  and  when 
this  list  is  concluded  we  suddenly  observe  ourselves  in  rctlcctcd 
immensity,  and  realize  what  our  appearance  would  be  il"  wo 
were  only  ftit.  At  the  rear  of  the  room  on  the  left  are  large 
steel  engravings  of  the    heroes    of  prose,  poetry    and    song. 


300  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Suspended  from  the  ceiling  are  large  pieces  of  canvas  deco- 
rated Avith  extravagant  caricatures  of  public  men  in  the  most 
ludicrous  roles.  Besides  these  pictorial  attractions  there  are 
mechanical  curiosities  productive  of  the  greatest  amusement. 

Having  hastily  passed  through  the  avenues  of  pictured  life 
as  seen  on  the  first  floor  of  Bessehl's  bazaar,  we  pass  up  stairs 
to  casually  inspect  the  collection  on  the  second  floor.  On  the 
south  side  of  the  upper  floor  is  a  long  cabinet  filled  with  stereop- 
ticon  views  of  noted  places  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  The 
cabinet  is  so  arranged  that  by  stepping  upon  a  small  platform 
which  works  a  wire  lever,  a  full  flood  of  gas-light  is  turned  on 
the  picture,  making  the  view  a  lovely  one.  There  are  twenty- 
four  of  these  stereopticon  views,  and  they  in  themselves  con- 
stitute a  peep-show  well  worth  seeing ;  but  these  are  indeed 
the  least  attractive  sights  in  the  o-allerv.  Arrano;ed  about  the 
room  are  several  subjects  of  natural  history,  including  deer, 
bear,  wolves,  panthers,  catamounts,  natives  of  North  America, 
and  in  a  handsome  show-case  are  many  species  of  wild  game 
peculiar  to  this  climate.  The  room  is  little  else  than  a  succes- 
sion of  show-cases,  filled  with  entrancing  curiosities.  In  one 
is  a  rare  collection  of  minerals  and  beautiful  stones  tastefully 
displayed,  showing  rough  and  polished  surfaces. 

But  the  finest  and  most  attractive  feature  of  the  establish- 
ment is  Mr.  Bessehl's  great  caravansary  and  aggregation  of 
bull  frogs.  There  are,  perhaps,  two  hundred  green  denizens 
of  the  marsh  in  this  collection,  and  each  of  them  displays  the 
highest  skill  of  the  taxidermist's  profession.  In  our  childhood 
we  have  read  with  grave  delight  of  the  frog  who  would  a  woo- 
ing go — those  pleasant  images  of  the  brain,  bright  fancies  of  a 
prolific  conception,  but  awaken  to  matured  life  to  see  our 
beautiful  stories  verified.  This,  at  least,  is  the  feeling  inspired 
by  looking  upon  the  life-like  attitudes  of  the  slick,  shining 
forms  of  these  frogs.  One  of  these  scenes  represents  a  paily  of 
pic-nickers  ;  three  frogs  are  rowing  a  boat,  three  others  are 
angling,  one  of  which  has  just  caught  a  fine  bass,  which  he  is 
in  the  act  of  landing ;  another  has  retired  to  a  shady  spot  and 
is  distilling  nectar  through  the  mouth  of  a  suspicious  little 
flask;  while  some  distance  from  the  others,  in  a  nook  fanned 
by  the  gentlest  zeph^yTS,  and  everything  in  nature  seems  to 


FRUITS.  .'?0l 

have  been  gotten  up  specially  for  the  occasion,  is  flio  hactrian 
swain  wooing  his  fair  companion.  On  herface  there  is  a  smile, 
broad  but  expressive,  that  lights  up  the  forest  and  by  its  rays 
the  lover  pictures  his  happy  fate. 

In  another  case  there  is  a  party  of  roughs  who  are  out  on  a 
lark  and  too  full  of  gin  and  peppermint  to  keep  their  legs. 
The  jugs  are  all  emjjty  and  froggish  revel  is  supreme.  On 
another  side  is  a  gay  party  of  hunters  ;  although  they  carry  no 
game,  they  handle  their  guns  like  crack  shots,  and  presume  to 
make  a  good  bag  before  returning.  In  short,  there  are  frogs 
in  every  conceivable  attitude,  and  each  position  is  as  natural 
and  expressive  as  though  they  were  human. 

These  details  are  necessarily  cursory  and  can  not  represent 
the  attractions  of  the  place  even  approximately  to  their  true 
interest.  The  curiosities  on  the  second  tloor  are  a  recent  ac- 
cession, and  with  the  fame  gained  by  his  collections  represented 
on  the  first  floor,  Bessehl's  will  now  be  recognized  as  one  of 
the  most  attractive  resorts  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  Visitors 
to  St.  Louis  can  not  afford  to  examine  our  many  pleasant,  in- 
spiring features  and  institutions,  and  leave  without  paying  a 
visit  to  Bessehl's  Pictorial  Bazaar,  to  which  there  is  no  admis- 
sion fee  charged,  and  the  sights  are  more  pleasing  and  instruc- 
tive than  those  of  any  traveling  museum  of  curiosities  in  ex- 
istence. 


SHEPHERD  &  GINOCCHIO.— Fruits. 

One  of  the  most  popular  and  reliable  houses  in  the  city 
dealing  in  fruits  and  nuts  is  that  of  Shepherd  &  Ginocchio, 
whose  place  of  business  is  at  No.  209  Market  Street.  This 
firm  is  not  only  strong  financially,  but  the  character  of  tluir 
trade  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  this  section.  Thoy  handle 
foreio-n,  California  and  all  domestic  fruits  and  nuts,  carrying  at 
all  times  an  immense  stock,  and  by  dint  of  perseverance  and 
enterprise  they  have  extended  their  trade  to  almost  every  State 
in  the  West. 


302  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

MISSISSIPPI  ICE  COMPANY. 

In  the  great  Mississippi  Valley,  which  for  six  or  eight 
months  of  the  year  lifts  up  its  broad  bosom  beneath  an  almost 
tropical  sun,  nothing  is  more  essential  to  man's  comfort  than 
some  means  of  counteracting  the  intense  heat  of  summer.  For 
this  purpose  nature  stands  him  in  good  stead  with  ready  re- 
sources. Just  as  the  coal-mines  and  forests  furnish  abundant 
fuel  for  the  long  nights  of  winter,  so  the  rivers  and  lakes  yield 
an  inexhaustible  supply  of  the  purest  ice,  which  enables  man 
to  combat  with  the  most  torrid  temperatures. 

Among  the  corporations  which  aim  to  fill  the  ever  increas- 
ing demand  for  this  supreme  luxury,  one  of  the  largest  in  St. 
Louis  is  the  Mississippi  Ice  Company,  organized  in  1872  by  the 
consolidation  of  a  St.  Louis  firm  with  a  Quincy  company.  The 
entire  business  has  lately  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  St.  Louis 
parties,  who  furnish  their  patrons  with  a  superior  article  and 
endeavor  to  handle  only  the  finest  kind   of  lake  and  river  ice. 

Their  ice  is  usually  cut  by  themselves  or  their  agents  in 
Quincy  Bay,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  and  at  De  Pue,  on  the 
Upper  Illinois,  where  the  company  own  enough  land  and 
water  property  to  supply  a  very  extensive  trade.  In  the  spring 
and  summer  their  ice  is  brought  down  the  river  by  their  own 
steamboat  and  barges,  or,  if  the  stage  of  water  is  insufficient, 
transported  on  cars  to  their  ice-houses  at  the  foot  of  Cass 
Avenue  in  St.  Louis.  They  have  ample  room  for  storing  a 
large  stock  of  ice,  and  are  able  and  willing  to  ship  to  any  point 
connected  by  rail  or  river  with  St.  Louis.  Their  business  is 
exclusively  wholesale,  dealing  with  brewers  and  retailers  of 
every  kind.  The  excellence  of  their  ice,  the  promptitude  with 
which  they  fill  all  orders,  and  their  large  stock  on  hand,  have 
secured  for  them  a  reputation  which  is  rapidly  gaining  ground 
all  over  the  "West  and  South. 

E.  C.  Little,  President  and  Treasurer,  is  one  of  our  most 
worthy  and  active  citizens.  I.  E.  Little  fills  the  place  of  Sec- 
retary, and  A.  E.  Uffman,  Superintendent. 

The  office  of  the  company  is  located  in  the  Granite  Build- 
ing, room  No.  210.  The  company,  as  well  as  its  officials,  is 
worthy  of  all  the  confidence  and  patronage  they  seek  for. 


BOOKS    AND    STATIONERY.  303 

GRAY  &  BAKER  BOOK  AND  STATIONERY  COMPANY. 

To  write  the  histoiy  of  the  great  book  and  stationery  liousc 
of  Gray  &  Baker  is  to  detail  the  progress  made  in  the  })uhlic 
schools  of  the  West  during  the  past  thirty  years.  This  period 
is  a  short  one,  it  is  true,  but  to  travel  backwards  over  these 
few  years  and  review  the  successive  stages  of  advancement  ; 
the  introduction  of  school  machinerv,  text-books,  class  <rrades 
and  methods  of  instruction,  we  pause  many  times  in  such  a 
retrospective  glance  and  exclaim  :  "Yes,  it  has,  indeed,  been 
a  long  time  since  we  sat  in  the  improvised  seats  of  the  unpre- 
tentious school-house  and  found  ourselves  sophomores  before 
we  had  laid  aside  Webster's  spelling  book,  else  so  many  re- 
markable changes  could  not  have  been  effected."  Thirty  years 
is  almost  the  age  of  a  generation,  but  in  the  epoch  in  whit-h  we 
live  it  is  the  revolution  in  the  cycle  of  corai^lete  transforma- 
tion. 

As  early  as  1851  Mr.  E.  P.  Gray  established  himself  in  the 
book  and  stationery  business,  in  a  building  on  the  corner  of 
Fourth  and  Chestnut  streets.  His  original  store  was  a  small 
one,  in  keeping  with  the  pioneer  character  of  the  business. 
He  conducted  the  trade  alone  until  1857,  when  J.  ]\I.  Crawford 
became  associated  with  him  as  a  partner,  and  the  name  of  the 
firm  became  Gray  &  Crawford.  The  business  was  soon  afterwards 
removed  to  No.  54  North  Fourth  Street,  where  a  much  larger 
stock  was  added,  which  was  fully  warranted  by  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  their  trade.  They  had  a  monopoly  of  the  sales  in 
periodicals  in  the  city,  and  upon  their  counters  were  found 
nearly  every  Eastern  publication  of  any  importance. 

In  1862  Mr.  Gray  purchased  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
Woodward  book  store,  located  on  the  corner  of  Fourth  and 
Locust  streets,  in  the  building  now  occupied  by  the  jewelry 
house  of  Mermod,  Jaccard  &  Co.,  the  only  house  at  that  time 
in  the  block.  The  store  run  under  the  name  of  E.  P.  Gray 
until  1865,  when  the  construction  of  the  row  was  begun,  which 
caused  Mr.  Gray  to  remove  to  No.  503  North  Fourth  Street. 
Here  he  remained  until  the  ])l()ck  of  buildings  on  Fourth,  !)(>- 
tween  Locust  and  St.  Charles  streets,  was  c(mii)l(>ted,  which 
occurred  in  1871,  when  he  removed  to  the  present  location, 


304  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

No,  407  North  Fourth  Street.  In  1873  Wm.  D.  Baker  and 
Henry  Griffin  were  admitted  as  partners,  and  the  firm  name 
was  changed  to  Gray,  Baker  &  Co.  The  new  firm  made  such 
rapid  progress  that  they  gave  up  the  trade  in  periodicals  and 
devoted  themselves  to  miscellaneous  books  and  stationery, 
doiiio-  the  largest  business  of  the  kind  in  the  West.  In  May 
last  the  firm  was  changed  into  a  joint  stock  company,  and  the 
title  again  changed,  to  the  Gray  &  Baker  Book  and  Stationery 
Company,  by  which  it  is  still  known. 

In  many  respects  this  house  is  the  largest  book  and  sta- 
tionery establishment  west  of  New  York.  The  building  is  one 
of  the  finest  on  Fourth  Street,  being  four  stories  in  height, 
beautifully  lighted,  and  provided  with  all  the  facilities  for  con- 
ducting an  immense  trade,  and  for  displaying  their  enormous 
stock  to  the  best  advantage. 

The  firm  has  correspondents  in  Europe  ready  to  purchase 
the  best  and  latest  publications  of  any  merit,  and  they  are  on 
the  most  intimate  terms  with  all  the  Eastern  publishing  houses, 
so  that  they  are  kept  fully  advised  of  everything  of  conse- 
quence appertaining  to  the  book  trade.  The  company  are  the 
general  Southwestern  agents  for  the  Encyclopedia  Brittanica, 
the  most  comprehensive  and  reliable  w^ork  published,  and  their 
stock  of  medical,  scientific  and  miscellaneous  books  can  not  be 
excelled.  There  is  scarcely  a  day  passes  but  that  the  firm  re- 
ceives one  or  more  orders  from  the  country  towns  for  supply- 
hig  libraries,  either  public,  private  or  circulating  libraries,  to 
the  filling  of  which  they  devote  special  attention.  Their  con- 
nection with  Eastern  publishers  enables  them  to  sell  on  first 
profits,  giving  Western  buyers  who  deal  with  them  the  advan- 
tage of  the  middle  dealers'  profits. 

In  the  stationery  line  the  Gray  &  Baker  Book  and  Sta- 
tionery Company  stand  unrivaled  by  any  would-be  competi- 
tors. The  company  are  the  sole  agents  in  St.  Louis  for  the  sale 
of  the  celebrated  Huron  and  Ionic  paper,  universally  acknowl- 
edged to  be  the  finest  writing  paper  ever  manufactured  by  any 
mills. 

All  the  latest  novels  and  also  the  best  scientific  works  are 
kept  constantly  in  stock,  and  the  first  floor,  or  salesroom,  is 
a  panoramic  picture  of  literature  seldom  seen,  and  for  beauty 


BOOKS    AND    STATIONERY.  305 

and  attractiveness  never  surpassed.  The  store  is  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  deep,  and  on  both  sides,  from  the  ih)()r  to  the 
ceiling,  arranged  on  a  thousand  shelves,  is  one  of  the  gruiuU-st 
displays  of  elegantly  bound  books,  so  great  in  number  as  to 
deserve  the  term  "innumerable,"  and  in  the  variety  of  colored 
backs  the  scene  is  ot  unlike  a  variegated  conservatory  of 
brightest  flowers. 

The  decline  in  the  price  of  books  during  the  past  few  years 
is  not  only  surprising,  but  those  who  have  not  informed 
themselves  on  the  remarkable  change  can  scarcely  conceive 
how  such  a  depreciation  could  have  taken  place.  By  an  exam- 
ination of  the  superb  stock  of  the  Gray  &  Baker  Book  and 
Stationery  Company,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  offer  for  sale  to 
the  retail  trade  such  bargains  as  the  following,  which  illustrate 
the  marked  reductions  referred  to  :  A  complete  set  of  Dick- 
ens' work,  fourteen  volumes,  bound  in  cloth,  and  illuminated 
backs,  eleven  dollars.  The  same  books  would  have  sold  iive 
years  ago  for  twice  that  sum  ;  Macaulay's  History  of  England, 
five  volumes,  beautifully  bound,  an  elegant  li])rary  edition, 
only  four  dollars,  one-half  less  than  the  same  books  oould  have 
been  purchased  three  years  ago  ;  and  so  on  for  the  best  editions 
of  the  most  popular  works.  But  a  yet  greater  reduction  is 
noticeable  in  the  price  for  books  of  fiction  and  poetry.  In  this 
department  of  literature  a  book  that  would  have  been  sold  for 
two  dollars  in  1872  is  now  offered  at  the  remarkable  sum  of 
fifty  cents.  This  great  change  is  not  attributable  to  any  other 
cause  than  the  reduction  made  in  every  necessary  of  life  and 
the  introduction  of  new  facilities  for  publishing  books  cheaper 
and  more  expeditiously.  The  American  people  are  not  only 
as  great  readers  as  ever,  but  their  appetite  for  good  books  is 
increasing,  yet  everj^thing  is  in  the  process  of  cheapening,  and 
literature  of  every  kind  must  act  in  sympathy  with  all  otlu-r 
articles  designed  for  our  comfort,  pleasure  and  instruction. 
The  Gray  &  Baker  Book  and  Stationery  Company  were  the 
first  to  put  down  the  prices  of  books,  and  in  this  effort  to 
subserve  the  true  interests  of  the  public  they  deserve  the  high- 
est commendation  and  substantial  recognition  from  every  reader 
in  the  West. 

The  second  and  third  floors  are  devoted  to  the  wholesale 

20 


306  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

departments,  which  are  always  well  stocked  with  an  extensive 
variety  of  goods  appertaining  to  the  business. 

On  the  second  floor  is  found  the  reserve  stock  of  stationery, 
pens,  paper  weights,  inkstands,  penknives,  paper  cutters,  al- 
bums, scrap  books,  checker  boards,  parlor  games,  and  a  thou- 
sand other  articles  belonging  to  the  trade. 

The  third  floor  is  reserved  exclusively  for  school  books,  of 
which  the  firm  makes  a  specialty,  doing  the  largest  business  in 
this  line  of  any  house  in  the  West.  Their  facilities  for 
handling  school  books  and  the  auxiliaries  are  unsurpassed,  and 
their  business  has  extended  until  it  includes  the  whole  of  the 
West  and  Southwest,  and  their  annual  sales  amount  to  near 
half  a  million. 

Within  the  past  few  years  the  Gray  &  Baker  Book  and 
Stationery  Company  have  been  issuing  catalogues  to  their 
l^atrons,  in  which  Avill  be  found  every  book  of  any  note,  sta- 
tionery articles,  school  books,  etc.,  with  price  attached.  This 
is  a  great  feature  and  of  the  utmost  utility.  By  it  the  reader 
is  kept  posted  on  the  latest  accessions  to  the  literature  of  the 
day,  the  labors  of  popular  authors,  the  introduction  of  new 
literature  and  the  subjects  treated.  In  this  age,  when  the 
number  of  new  books  published  reach  perhaps  one  hundred 
daily,  including  scientific  works  and  novels,  it  is  of  course  im- 
possible for  any  reader,  however  constant,  to  keep  up  with 
the  book-makers,  but  by  the  use  of  such  a  catalogue  as  issued 
by  the  Gray  &  Baker  Book  and  Stationery  Company,  it  is  an 
easy  matter  to  keep  thoroughly  posted,  and  enables  any  one  to 
readily  obtain  the  more  valuable  and  important  of  the  new 
publications. 

By  the  employment  of  the  most  admirable  system  that  can 
be  devised  and  the  proper  utilization  of  every  means  at  their 
command,  supplemented  by  a  thoroughly  enterprising  disposi- 
tion and  a  natural  adaptability  to  the  business,  the  firm  has  not 
only  prospered  but  has  gained  a  position  in  the  commercial 
grandeur  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  truly  enviable.  Mr.  E.  P. 
Gray  is  one  of  the  oldest  book  and  stationery  dealers  in  the 
country,  having  devoted  nearly  thirty  years  of  his  life  to  the 
business,  and  the  success  with  which  he  has  met  abundantly 


BOOKS    AND    STATIONERY.  307 

illustrates  his  ability  and  sound  Judgment  in  the  management 
of  his  interests. 

Hemy  Griffin,  Treasurer  of  the  company,  Is  a  young  man, 
but  he  has  been  brought  up  in  the  business,  and  understands 
all  its  details  thoroughly  ;  he  enjoys  a  large  ac<iuaintance,  and 
is  well  calculated  to  attain  the  most  complete  success  ni  the 
line  of  trade  he  has  selected. 

In  every  respect  the  Gray  &  Baker  Book  and  Stationery 
Company  is  a  business  organization  of  vast  importance  to  St . 
Louis  and  the  West,  and  one  which  properly  claims  nnidi  of 
the  pride  which  our  city  institutions  deserve  for  enterprise, 
progressiveness  and  success. 


WILLIE  H.  GRAY.— Books  and  Stationery. 

The  Americans  are  essentially  a  great  reading  people,  and 
every  year  the  popularity  of  periodical  literature  is  increasing. 
In  fact,  the  jDerusal  of  the  great  newspapers  becomes  a  habit 
no  less  tenacious  than  that  acquired  by  the  use  of  stimulants. 
The  one,  however,  is  most  wholesome,  and  in  proportion  to 
the  number  who  adopt  it  will  unhappiness,  and  the  attendant 
evils  of  ignorance  and  prejudice,  be  dissipated.  Our  news- 
stands are  essentially  depots  of  intelligence,  and  are  as  conse- 
quential factors  in  the  construction  of  the  commerce  and 
elevation  of  the  population  of  the  city  as  schools  and  churches, 
yet  for  some  reason  such  an  importance  is  rarely  attached  to 
them. 

In  St.  Louis  there  is  no  want  of  opportunities  for  securing 
all  the  literature  of  the  day  :  but  while  there  arc  numerous 
small  concerns  there  is  only  one  principal  depot  where  c\ciy 
periodical  of  America  and  also  all  the  leading  newspapers  of 
Europe  can  always  be  ol)tained  fresh  from  the  public:itinM 
office.  This  central  depot,  as  it  were,  is  that  of  Willie  II. 
Gray,  at  Nos.  306  and  308  Olive  Street. 

Mr.  Gray  established  the  business,  which  he  has  ever  since 


308  TOUR    OF    ST,    LOUIS. 

conducted  most  successfully,  in  1861,  locating  on  the  north- 
west corner  of  Third  and  Olive  streets.  The  war  gave  an  im- 
mense impetus  to  the  news  trade,  and  Mr.  Gray  found  himself 
at  once  in  the  midst  of  a  large  business,  with  the  demands  for 
papers  so  great  tliat  it  was  impossible  to  keep  a  sufficient 
sujiply  at  all  tunes.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was 
making  money  rapidly,  in  18G2  Mr.  Gray  responded  to  the 
call  of  his  country,  and.  leaving  his  store  in  the  hands  of  a 
trusted  employee,  he  enlisted  in  the  Union  army  and  served 
faithfully  for  three  years,  when  he  returned  to  again  resume 
his  peaceful  vocation.  In  18G5,  during  his  term  of  service, 
the  store  was.  removed  from  its  original  location  to  No.  308 
Olive  Street,  where  the  business  was  conducted  without  change 
until  1869,  when  the  trade  had  so  increased  that  the  premises 
were  enlarged  to  include  No.  306,  and  the  business  has  run 
uninterruptedly  in  the  same  building  ever  since. 

Upon  entering  the  store,  the  visitor  is  fairly  bewildered  by 
the  sight  of  such  an  immense  i)ile  of  books,  papers,  stationery, 
etc.,  which  present  so  many  attracticms  that  it  is  difficult  to 
make  a  selection  unless  the  visitor  is  determined  upon  what  he 
wants  before  entering  the  place.  Here  will  be  found  not 
only  all  the  papers  of  any  consequence  of  either  hemisphere, 
but  also  all  the  magazines,  choice  novels,  elegantly  bound 
works  of  fiction,  cheap  novels,  gold  pens,  pocket-knives, 
games,  etc.,  and  the  finest  stock  of  stationery,  perhaps,  in  the 
city.  Mr.  Gray  does  by  far  the  largest  business  in  periodicals 
of  any  dealer  in  the  West,  and  supplies  a  large  number  of 
country  news-dealers. 

In  1875,  after  the  location  of  the  new  Custom-house  and 
Post-office  was  jnade,  Mr.  Gray  concluded  that  the  retail 
business  of  the  city  must  necessarily  gravitate  towards  and 
cluster  around  that  great  structure.  In  order,  therefore,  to 
be  in  advance  of  the  moving  trade  he  leased  a  store-room  at 
No.  701)  Olive  Street,  which  he  stocked  wnth  articles,  etc.,  per- 
tinent to  his  business,  and  has  been  running  the  branch  house 
profitably  ever  since.  It  is  Mr.  Gray's  intention,  provided  his 
predictions  are  verified,  which  certainly  promise  fulfillment, 
to  concentrate  his  business  ultimately  in  his  store  near  the 
Custom-house. 


BOOTS    AND    SHOES.  ^OD 

Mr.  Gray  has  always  rcmainod  alone  in  lousiness,  but  lias 
devoted  his  time  and  best  ability  to  such  i)uri)()sc  that  his 
prosperity  is  marked,  and  he  is  now  in  the  most  comfortable 
circumstances  and  enjoys  the  highest  regards  of  every  citizen. 
Willie  Gray's  book  and  news  store  is  as  familiarly  known  in 
the  city  as  though  the  place  were  a  large  public  resort.  On 
any  morning  the  store  is  the  next  place  of  attraction  after  the 
post-office,  and  is  a  feature  of  St.  Louis  that  has  grown  into 
prime  importance  aud  most  enviable  notoriety. 


GIESECia:,  MEYSENBURG  &  CO.— Boots  and  Shoes. 

Among  the  largest  manufacturers  of  hand-made  boots  and 
shoes  and  most  popularly  known  to  the  trade  is  the  house  of 
Oiesecke,  Meysenburg  &  Co.,  now  located  at  Nos.  210  and  212 
Washington  Avenue.     The    business    was    estal)lishod    in  St. 
Louis  about   ten  years  ago  on  the  corner  of  ]\Iain  and  Vine 
streets,  where  they  remained  a  few  years,  until  their  business 
had  increased  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  building.     They  then 
removed  to   the    corner   of   Main    and    Locust  streets,  from 
whence  they  were  again  forced  to  remove  on  account  of  a  lack 
of  facilities,  their  second  removal  being  to  their  present  loca- 
tion.    Their  present  building  is  fifty  feet  wide  l)y  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  in  depth,  and  is  four  stories  in  height ;  it  is  well 
lighted  and  provided  with  all  the  accessories  for  manufacturing 
the  best  hand-made  goods  at  the  lowest  possil)le  cost.     Thov 
employ  three  hundred  hands,  and  job  all  their  own  prothict  in 
Missouri,  Illinois,  Kansas,  Iowa  and  Colorado.     The  boots  and 
shoes  turned  out  by  the  factory  of  Giesecke,  Meysenburg  &  Co. 
are  all  hand-made,  and  pronounced  by  all  dealers  of  a  superior 
quality  and  finish.     One  of  the  best  evidences  of  Ihoir  excel- 
lent work  is  found  in  the  rapid  increase  of  tiicii-  business  in 
the  face  of  the  almost  general  depression  whicii  prevails  in  \hc 
trade.     The   members  of  the  firm  are    comparatively  young 
men,  but  are  thoroughly  acquainted  with  their  business,  and 
gentlemen  of  polish  and  urbanity,  and  enterprise,  characteris- 
tics which  have  popularized  them  with  the  trade  of  the  West. 


HOME    DECORATIONS. 


311 


J.  L.  ISAACS. — Home  Decorations. 

The  accompai^ying  cut  is  a  faithful 
illustration  of  the  beautiful  structuic 
erected  by  J.  L.  Isaacs  on  the  south  side 
of  Olive,  between  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth 
streets,  in  the  3^ear  1876.  This  buildin<r, 
occupying  Nos.  1210  and  1212,  is  one  of 
the  most  ornate  and  attractive  features  in 
that  part  of  the  city.  But  not  akuie  in 
the  handsome  design,  strength  and  imposing  appearance  of  the 
building  is  the  true  interest  centered  for  the  history  of  its  owner, 
his  labors  in  St.  Louis  and  the  attainment,  through  what  many 
would  declare  insurmountable  obstacles,  to  a  posit iou  he  now 
occupies,  stamps  him  as  oue  of  the  worthy  self-made  men  of 
the  AVest.  The  building  is  four  story,  Warrensburg  stone 
front,  richly  ornamented  in  a  style  of  architecture  that  is 
entirely  original.  Over  the  entrance  is  a  colossal  stone  figure 
of  "Excelsior,"  the  motto  and  trade-mark  of  Mr.  Isaacs. 
The  stately  canopy  which  overshadows  the  statue  is  a  feature 
which,  while  it  adds  greatly  to  the  elegant  appcaraucc  of  the 
buildino^,  illustrates  the  decorative  character  of  the  lousiness 
for  which  the  structure  was  erected.  Entering  the  spacious 
store,  which  covers  in  depth  the  entire  half  blork,  we  find  the 
fixtures  and  furniture  are  of  solid  walnut,  inlaid  with  other 
fine  woods,  so  richly  embellished  that  any  description  would 
be  inadequate,  a  personal  inspection  being  the  only  means  by 
which  a  proper  conception  of  its  elegance  can  be  obtained. 
In  its  every  appointment  the  building  is  the  finest  west  of 
New  York  devoted  to  the  business  for  which  it  is  used,  :uk1  in 
its  interior  decoration  is  perhaps  the  most  clal)()r:ite  in  tlie 
world.  The  floor  of  the  curtain-room  is  laid  with  beautiful 
decorative  wood  carpet,  and  in  addition  to  the  ordinary 
diamond  shelving  for  wall  paper  in  the  main  store,  there  are 
magnificent  cabinets,  supplied  Avith  immense  screens,  which 
open  from  the  walls  and  display  the  fine  qualities  of  Dr.  Di-cs- 
ser's  art  designs  and  French  art  decorations,  of  Aviiith  Mr. 
Isaacs  is  sole  agent,  in  the  most  advantageous  mainu-r.  These 
art  desio-ns  are  a  special  feature  of  Mr.  Isaac's  business,  and 


312  TOUR    OF    ST.    l^OUIS. 

they  are  undoubtedly  the  handsomest  wall  decorations  ever 
introduced  in  this  country. 

One  of  the  marked  specialties  of  Mr.  Isaacs*  business  is 
oil-painted  wall  paper,  an  imitation  of  frescoing,  and  one  of 
the  most  useful  and  ornamental  inventions  of  the  century. 
This  paper  is  prepared  in  such  a  manner  that  it  is  impervious 
to  water,  and  can  be  washed  with  soap  and  scrubbed  indefinitely 
without  the  slightest  injury  to  either  the  paper  or  color.  It 
is  much  handsomer  than  oil  painting,  more  durable,  and 
incomparably  cheaper. 

In  the  general  stock  carried  by  this  house  will  be  found 
the  most  extensive  variety  of  wall  papers,  from  the  cheapest 
grades  to  the  most  elaborate  and  costly  decorations.  There  is 
also  an  upholstery  department,  supplied  with  every  style  and 
quality  of  curtaius,  includiug  lace  and  lambrequius ;  also, 
window  shades,  mosquito  canopies,  w^ire  screens  for  doors 
and  windows,  and  everything  properly  belonging  to  the 
business. 

Every  nook  in  the  store-room  is  utilized  most  advanta^ 
geously,  even  the  panels  and  divisions  having  small  doors, 
\vhich  open  into  the  casement  spaces,  subserving  many  useful 
purposes.  The  high  ceilings  aflbrd  a  splendid  opportunity 
for  the  display  of  regal  lambrequins,  lace  curtains  and  fine 
goods  of  this  character,  and  the  beautiful  tessellated  floor 
forms  an  admirable  background  for  the  exhibition  of  the 
general  stock.  Mr.  Isaacs'  private  office  is  a  model  of  beauty 
and  convenience,  being  sumptuously  finished  and  having 
ever3^thing  arranged  in  the  most  convenient  manner. 

The  first  floor  of  No,  1212  is  devoted  principally  to  the 
display  of  tessellated  wood  floors,  an  article  extensively  used 
throughout  Europe,  and  now  being  rapidly  introduced  into  all. 
the  larger  cities  of  America.  On  the  same  floor  are  also  found 
many  elegant  specimens  of  wood-carv^ings,  the  designing  and 
execution  of  which  is  accomplished  under  Mr.  Isaacs'  directions. 

Mr.  Isaacs  w^as  the  original  introducer  of  patent  w^eather 
strips,  and  is  the  largest  importer  of  wall  papers  and  dealer 
in  wood  carpets,  wire  screens,  portal)le  wainscots,  marquetry 
floors,  window  shades,  and  everything  pertaining  to  his  trade 


SPORTING   GOODS.  oVl 

west  of  New  York,  and  is  the  only  dealer  iu  St.  Louis  doing 
business  in  his  own  building. 

He  is  sole  agent  here  for  Mark's  improved  adjustable  chair, 
the  greatest  invention  for  invalids  as  well  also  as  the  easiest 
chair  for  the  parlor,  library,  smoking-room,  etc.,  ever  con- 
ceived. It  embraces  every  combination  for  case  and  com- 
fort, being  readily  converted  from  a  chair  into  a  variety  of 
easy  positions  ;  to  a  lounge,  bed,  child's  cril),  or  snrgcon's 
operating  table.  It  can  be  folded  up  so  as  to  occupy  a  space 
only  two  feet  square  by  eight  inches  deep,  and  weighs  only 
fortj'^-five  pounds.  It  is,  in  short,  a  combination  of  a  dozen 
articles  of  furniture,  and  more  perfect  in  each  than  the  sepa- 
rate pieces. 

"What  we  have  said  here  of  ]\Ir.  Isaacs  and  his  works,  are 
but  the  merest  summary  of  his  accomplishments  ;  a  visit  to 
his  colossal  establishment  is  the  only  means  by  which  a  proper 
conception  of  its  magnitude  and  importance  can  be  ol)tained. 
It  is  one  of  th#  great  institutions  of  the  "West,  and  I\Ir.  lasacs 
well  deserves  the  trade  in  his  line  of  the  Mississippi  "Valley. 


BKOWN  &  HILDER— Sporting  Goods. 

Notwithstanding  the  fiict  that  St.  Louis  is  situated  upon 
the  borders  of  the  finest  game  country  in  the  United  States, 
and  is  the  receiving  center  for  all  the  game  killed  in  the  "West, 
for  years  she  was  without  a  representative  establishment  for 
sporting  materials.  It  is  true  that  ammunition  and  fire-arms 
were  kept  for  sale,  but  there  was  no  house  that  was  enterpris- 
ino-  enouirh  to  push  abreast  of  the  times  by  keeping  all  the 
novelties  of  the  profession,  or  selling  goods  at  prices  reason- 
able in  comparison  with  Eastern  houses.  The  need  was  long 
and  painfully  felt,  and  many  inducements  offered  which  re- 
mained unaccepted  until  in  the  early  part  of  1877,  when  II.  8. 
Brown,  formerly  of  Brown  &  Hofman,  and  Maj.  F.  F.  Iliider, 
manairer  of  the  St.  Louis  branch  of  E.  Keminglon  ^Q  Sons, 
associated  themselves  under  the  firm  name  of  Brown  c^  Ilildcr, 


314  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

and  entered  the  trade,  making  a  specialty  of  shot-guns,  rifles, 
pistols,  ammunition,  fishing  tackle  and  sporting  goods  of  every 
description.  They  located  at  No.  604  North  Fourth  Street, 
and  in  the  short  time  they  have  been  engaged  in  the  business 
have  built  up  a  trade  incomparably  greater  than  that  of  any 
house  west  of  New  York. 

The  firm  has  become  headquarters  for  all  Western  sports- 
men, because  they  have  revolutionized  prices  and  keep  an 
assortment  which  comprises  everything  pertinent  to  the  busi- 
ness. They  are  the  sole  agents  for  E.  Remington  &  Sons' 
shot-guns  and  pistols  ;  W.  W.  Greener's,  Birmingham,  Eng- 
land, breech-loaders  ;  G.  W.  Simmons  &  Son's,  Boston,  sports- 
men's clothing,  and  are  importers  of  all  makes  of  guns  and 
pistols.  Brown  &  Hilder's  business  has  increased  at  an  un- 
precedented ratio,  and  their  extensions  are  constant.  In  addi- 
tion to  their  importations  they  are  manufacturers  of  water- 
proof hunting  suits,  camp  equipage.  Case  &  Bedell's  excel- 
sior game  belts,  fishing  tackle,  nets,  seines  and  fishermen's 
goods.  The  range  of  articles  in  which  they  deal  includes  car- 
tridges and  ammunition  of  all  kinds,  Eaton's  rust  preventor, 
shells  and  wads,  extractors  and  recappers,  loading  implements 
and  gun  tools,  dog,  turkey  and  duck  calls,  decoy  birds,  archery 
goods,  etc.,  and  in  fact  everything  from  a  pop-gun  to  a  cannon, 
and  the  prices  at  which  their  goods  are  sokl  have  popularized 
them  with  all  sportsmen  ;  and  while  they  are  content  with  a 
limited  margin  on  sales,  they  keep  every  conceivable  article 
that  a  sportsman  may  require  for  either  this  or  any  other  coun- 
try. One  of  the  results  of  the  enterprise  thus  manifested  by 
the  firm  is  most  wholesome,  for  it  has  cultivated  a  taste  for 
sporting  never  before  exhibited  in  St.  Louis,  and  has  brought 
an  immense  trade  to  our  city,  which,  while  tributary,  had  been 
forced  before  to  o|;o  elsewhere. 

Among  the  list  of  prizes  awarded  at  the  bench  show  of 
dogs  and  sportsmen's  goods,  held  in  St.  Louis  in  March  last, 
the  following  were  received  by  Brown  &  Hilder  : 

Class  B — First  prize — Best  double-barrel  shot-gun,  at  $150. 
W.  W.  Greener,  maker. 

Class  5 — Very  highly  commended — Best  $100  shot-gun. 
E.  Remington  &  Sons,  makers. 


.  AUCTIONEERING .  315 

Class  7 — First  prize — Best  target  rifle.  E,  Remington  & 
Sons,  makers. 

Class  8 — Very  highly  commended — Sporting  rifle.  E. 
Remington  &  Sons,  makers. 

Class  9 — First  prize — Best  shooting  snit.  G.  W.  Snnnions 
&  Son,  Boston,  makers. 

Class  10 — Very  highly  commended — Best  suit,  valued  at 
$13.     G.  W.  Simmons  &  Son,  Boston,  makers. 

Class  10 — Very  highly  commended — Best  suit,  valued  ;it 
$16.25.     Brown  &  Hilder,  makers. 

Class  13 — First  prize — Best  hunting  boots.  Thomson  & 
Son,  makers.  New  York. 

Class  14 — First  prize — Best  display  fishing  tackle. 

Class  15 — First  prize — Best  fishing  rods.  Conroy,  Bissett 
&  Malleson,  New  York,  makers. 

"Class  18 — Sweepstakes — Best  display  fire-arms  and  sports- 
men's goods. 

Also,  the  following  special :  Very  highly  commended  for 
Spratt's  patent  meat  fibrine  dog  cakes.  Brown  &  Ililder, 
agents. 

This  was  by  far  the  largest  number  of  prizes  won  by  any 
single  firm,  and  is  an  evidence  of  the  enterprise  and  merit  of 
the  proprietors,  as  well,  also,  a  notable  indication  of  the  per- 
sonal popularity  of  Messrs.  Brown  &  Hilder. 


O.  J.  LEWIS  &  CO.— Auctioneers. 

Auctioneering  is  an  old  profession,  but  one  in  which  few 
persons  succeed.  The  talents  required  in  the  business  are  of 
the  hio-hest  order,  combining  quickness  ofpercei)tion,  thorough 
knowledge  of  men's  dispositions,  acuteness  of  judgment,  and 
withal,  a  magnetic  and  open  character.  These  attributes,  all 
of  which  are  inherent,  must  be  subordinated  and  })olislied  l)y 
contact  with  society  and  a  large  experience.  But  while  tin- 
business  is  precarious  with  a  majority  of  auctioneers,  those 
who  are  successful  secure  a  full  measure  of  public  confidence 


316  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

and  credit.  Every  city  now  has  its  representative  auction 
house,  because  they  are  essential  to  pubHc  convenience,  the 
telephone  of  communication,  as  it  were,  between  buyers  and 
sellers,  acquainting  each  with  information  which  advances  his 
interests  and  facilitates  his  investments.  In  St.  Louis  there 
are  several  large  auction  houses,  but  the  chief  one  among  the 
"many,  representative  of  the  West,  is  the  immense  house  of  O. 
J.  Lewis  &  Co.,  No.  417  North  Fifth  Street.  The  present 
firm  is  the  successor  of  Murdock  &  Dickson,  who  established 
business  in  1836  at  No.  204  and  206  North  Main  Street,  at 
that  time  the  center  of  the  jobbing  trade  of  the  city,  where 
they  did  a  very  large  business.  In  the  year  1873  Mr.  O.  J. 
Lewis  purchased  the  entire  interest  in  the  concern,  when  the 
name  of  the  firm  was  changed  to  its  present  title. 

Mr.  Lewis  foresaw  the  future  location  of  the  then  shifting 
trade,  and  moving  with  the  advance,  re-established  his  business 
m  the  immense  building  he  now  occupies.  It  is  not  enough  of 
the  firm  of  O.  J.  Lewis  &  Co.  to  say  that  it  is  the  oldest  and 
largest  auction  house  in  St.  Louis,  for  these  qualifications  do 
not  accurately  measure  the  extent  of  their  operations,  which 
are  not  surpassed,  perhaps,  by  any  auction  house  in  the  West. 
The  building  the  firm  now  occupies  is  six  stories  in  height  by 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep,  with  entrances  on  Fifth  and 
also  St.  Charles  streets,  and  running  back  to  a  broad  and 
well-paved  alley,  thus  enabling  them  to  make  all  their  ship- 
ments and  receive  their  goods  in  the  rear. 

The  first  or  basement  floor  is  used  for  boxing  purposes 
alone,  and  is  crowded  with  goods  which  are  being  packed  pre- 
paratory for  shipment.  The  rattle  of  hammers  and  rolling  of 
boxes  indicate  a  pressure  of  business  which  quick  and  constant 
work  can  alone  provide  for. 

The  second  or  ground  floor  is  the  salesroom  and  oflSce. 
Three  rows  of  counters  extend  the  entire  length  of  the  build- 
ing, subserving  a  most  useful  purpose  in  the  attractive  display 
of  goods  as  they  arc  put  on  sale.  There  is  an  abundance  of  room, 
plenty  of  light,  and  everything  provided  for  the  convenience 
of  purchasers.  The  third  and  fourth  floors  are  used  for  the 
storage  of  dry  goods,  notions  and  clothing,  and  the  fifth  and 
sixth  floors  are  crowded  with  boxed  boots  and-shoes.     These 


AUCTIONEERING.  317 

departments  are  always  complotcly  stocked,  for  as  fast  as  the 
goods  are  sold  new  consignments  arrive,  thus  making  an  cud- 
less  routine  of  packing  and  unpacking,  selling  and  buying, 
shipping  and  receiving.  The  handling  of  such  an  immense 
amount  of  goods  requires  a  large  force  of  men,  and  the  constant 
use  of  two  large  freight  elevators  run  by  steam,  a\  ilh  which  Iho 
building  is  provided.  The  aggregate  area  of  the  house  is 
tAventy-seven  thousand  square  feet,  equal  to  nearly  three- 
fourths  of  an  acre,  and  yet  there  is  not  a  single  fot)t  of  idle 
space.  The  business  of  the  house  during  the  i)ast  3car 
was,  in  round  figures,  one  million  dollars,  and  this  year, 
judging  from  present  stdes,  this  amount  will  be  increased  by 
one-half  at  least.  The  rapiJ  increase  and  extent  of  such  an 
enormous  business,  and  one,  too,  in  which  so  very  few  suc- 
ceed, can  be  accounted  for  only  upon  the  assumption  that  tiie 
proprietors  possess  the  qualifications  specially  adapted  to  the 
auction  trade  ;  that  they  have  the  complete  confidence  of  the 
public ;  and  lastly,  are  in  every  respect  deserving  of  such 
signal  success. 

Mr.  Lewis  is  a  gentleman  in  whom  the  attribute  of  order 
and  perfect  system  is  supreme  ;  he  gives  the  business  his  per- 
sonal supervision  ;  sees  that  everything  is  in  proper  shape,  and 
that  every  customer  receives  his  dues.  The  reputation  of  O. 
J.  Lewis  &  Co.  is  co-extensive  wnth  the  West,  and  their  consign- 
ments are  consequently  double  that  of  any  other  auction  house 
in  the  city,  and  those  wdio  become  their  patrons  once  never 
have  occasion  to  go  elsewhere,  unless  the  articles  desired  can 
not  be  had  of  the  firm. 

Thus  we  observe  that  adaptability,  adherence  to  purpose, 
faithfulness  and  honesty  are  the  elements  of  success,  while  to 
these  strong  principles  O.  J.  Lewis  &  Co.  have  added  pluck 
and  enterprise,  which  have  placed  them  too  far  in  the  van  of 
competition  to  feel  its  influence. 


318 


TOUPw    or    ST.    LOUIS. 


GKAY,  BOWMAN  &  CO.— IVIachinery  Merchants. 

In  Masonic  Temple  Building,  No.  703  to  709  Market  and 
No.  4  South  Seventh  Street.  This  firm  may  be  mentioned  as 
somewhat  remarkable  for  the  rapidity  with  which  they  have 
extended  their  business,  and  the  clever  foresight  exhibited  by 
them  in  taking  hold  of  a  public  want  that  was,  as  a  rule,  very 
illy  attended  to. 

The  machine-using  public  now  forms  a  highly  important 
element  in  our  society,  and  represents  one  of  the  most  pro- 


gressive classes  of  business  men.  The  progress  that  each  in- 
dividual makes  compels  almost  a  constant  change  in  his  ma- 
chinery, and  when  new  machines  of  greater  power  are  pur- 
chased it  becomes  a  question  as  to  what  shall  be  done  with  the 
original  one  of  less  capacity. 

Heretofore  these  supplanted  machines  have  been  set  aside 
to  be  rusted  out  and  broken  up,  but  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
has  hit  upon  the  happy  plan  of  relieving  the  manufacturer  by 
taking  his  machine  as  part  payment  on  the  new  one.  Thus, 
by  having  control  of  a  most  excellent  line  of  new  machinery, 


MACHINERY    MERCHANTS.  ."19 

embracing  all  classes  of  stoaiii  ciiijincs,  iron  working  tools, 
wood  cutting  machines  and  milling  nuuhinory,  llu'V  are  ena- 
bled to  otter  a  consumer  what  he  wants,  and  at  the  same  time 
relieve  him  of  what  he  does  not  Mant. 

The  second-hand  machmery  thus  brought  into  their  posses- 
sion is  taken  to  their  shops,  carefully  overhauled,  and  again 
put  upon  the  market  at  wonderfully  low  prices,  which  enables 
persons  who  need  a  machine  for  a  particular  piece  of  work,  or 
those  who  desire  to  begin  business  on  a  small  capital,  to  have 
their  wants  supplied  by  a  first-class  house  who  warrant  all  their 
representations  The  firm  has  also  taken  the  initiatory  step 
in  the  Western  country  in  fitting  and  furnishing  steam  yachts, 
and  are  prepared  to  furnish  any  part  of  the  machinery,  or 
complete  yachts.  Small  boats  will  shortly  become  an  able 
accessory  to  rapid  business  transactions  on  the  multitude  of 
lakes  and  rivers  of  the  West,  besides  the  steam  yacht  affords 
an  endless  source  of  pleasure. 

They  have  also  taken  the  lead  in  introducing  spiral  locked 
seam  and  spiral  riveted  galvanized  wrought-iron  pipes  of  all 
weights  and  sizes.  These  pipes  are  meeting  with  unusual 
favor,  and  their  lines  of  usefulness  are  rapidly  extending. 
They  are  especially  meeting  with  great  favor  for  down  spouts 
to  houses,  or  leader  pipes  for  pumps,  suction  and  exhaust  steam 
pipes  ;  also,  for  water  conductor  pipes.  The  lightness,  strength 
and  durability  of  this  tubing  renders  it  very  popular  among 
practical  men. 

The  minor  machines,  tools  and  fittings  handled  by  this 
house  are  too  many  to  make  mention  of  here. 

Besides  their  machinery  business,  Messrs.  Gray,  Bowman 
&  Co.  are  builders  of  gas  and  water  works.  Mr.  Carroll  E. 
Gray,  the  senior  of  the  firm,  attends  chiefly  to  these  contracts. 
The  works  in  the  following  places  were  built  by  him,  viz: 
Alliance,  O.,  gas;  Brigham  Hall,  Canadaigua,  N.  Y.,  gas; 
Kankakee,  111.,  gas  ;  AVashington,  Ind.,  gas  ;  Lawrence,  Kan., 
gas  ;  Sherman,  Tex.,  gas  ;  Willard  Asylum,  Ovid,  N.  Y.,  gas  ; 
Pueblo,  Col.,  water;  Joplin,  Mo.,  gas;  Carthage,  Mo.,  gas; 
Denison,  Tex.,  gas;  the  works  at  the  two  latter  places  being 
under  construction  at  this  writing.  Throe  of  the  above  works 
are  now  leased  and  operated  by  the  builders.     Mr.  Albert  B. 


320  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Bowman,  the  junior  member,  a  3'oung  man  of  large  experience 
in  the  Southern  and  Western  States,  and  a  man  of  brisk  busi- 
ness habits,  is  at  the  financial  helm.  Mr.  Claude  Freeman,  a 
mechanical  engineer  of  acknowledged  ability,  is  the  manager 
in  charge  of  the  machinery  houses  and  warerooms.  The  corps 
of  assistants  is  well  selected  and  constitutes  a  trained  crew. 

Altogether,  the  house  is  thorough-going,  up  with  the  times 
and  reliable. 


L.  P.  EWALD  &  CO. — Iron,  Steel  and  Heavy  Hardware. 

St.  Louis  is  supreme  in  her  iron  interests,  being  bound  to 
the  highest  destiny  by  bands  of  steel  of  her  own  forging. 
Our  great  foundries  and  iron  jobbing  houses  give  to  her  a 
solid  supremacy,  which  is  ever  in  the  ascendency.  Among 
the  old  and  substantial  firms  that  have  built  up  an  immense 
trade  and  reputation  in  the  handling  of  heavy  hardware  is  that 
of  L.  P.  Ewald  &  Co.,  Nos.  1024  and  1026  North  Main  Street. 
This  house  was  originally  established  by  Messrs.  Squire  & 
Reed  in  the  year  1848,  their  location  being  on  the  levee  just 
below  Olive  Street.  There  have  been  several  changes  in  the 
house  since  then  in  the  succession  of  son  to  father  and  the 
retirement  of  the  old  members,  until  1873,  Avhen  L.  P.  Ewald 
became  sole  proprietor,  and  has  been  conducting  the  business 
very  successfully  ever  since.  The  company  part  of  the  firm 
is  only  nominal,  and  retained  because  of  the  success  under 
the  title. 

The  articles  handled  by  L.  P.  Ewald  &  Co.  include  iron, 
steel — making  a  specialty  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  char- 
coal iron,  of  which  they  are  sole  agents — wagon  and  carriage 
wood-work,  and  heavv  hardware  in  2:eneral.  The  stock  car- 
ried  regularly  is  from  seven  to  eight  hundred  tons  of  iron, 
and  their  annual  business  amounts  to  a  quarter  of  a  million 
dollars.  Their  trade  extends  over  the  entire  West,  and  every 
year  is  branching  into  new  fields,  thereby  increasing  the  de- 
mand upon  the  house. 


DENTAL  AND  SURGICAL  APPAUATU8.  321 

The  celebrated  charcoal  iron  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky 
is  in  great  favor  throughout  the  country,  and  its  use  is  becom- 
ing more  general  every  day,  supplanting  other  qualities  be- 
cause of  its  superior  toughness  and  durability,  being  ciual  in 
all  respects  to  the  best  Norway  iron,  while  it  is  nuich  cheaper. 
Its  introduction  into  this  market  has  been  ell'ectively  accom- 
plished by  Mr.  Ewald,  who  is  extending  its  sale  to  the  far 
West,  and  wherever  sold  the  demand  has  largely  increased. 

Mr.  Ewald  occupies  a  high  position  among  the  solid  com- 
mercial men  of  St.  Louis,  his  business  being  conducted  upon 
the  strictest  i^rinciples  of  honesty  and  the  protection  of  tho 
interests  of  all  who  deal  with  him. 


A.  M.  LESLIE  &  CO. — Dental  and  Surgical  Apparatus. 

The  improvements  made  during  the  past  few  years  in  den- 
tal and  surgical  material  and  apparatus  almost  surpass  com- 
prehension. The  indications  are  that  the  genius  of  the  profes- 
sion has  been  constantly  employed  in  devising  new  methods 
and  novel  instruments  for  saving  life,  mitigating  sufiering  and 
re-establishing  the  natural  physical  conformations  marred  by 
accident  and  disease. 

In  St.  Louis  we  have  abundant  opportunity  to  see  tho 
necessity  for  skillful  appliances  of  this  character,  and  it  is  hero 
that  the  evidence  of  progressive  science  is  abundantly  supplied. 
Among  the  institutions  of  this  great  city,  that  of  A.  M.  Leslie 
&  Co.,  No.  319  North  Fifth  Street,  is  one  of  special  interest, 
because  it  is  a  representative  American  house,  in  which  the 
attainments  of  the  dental  and  surgical  profession  are  illus- 
trated. This  establishment  was  first  opened  by  A.  M.  Leslie, 
Sr.,  in  185G,  in  a  small  building  on  the  corner  of  Third  and 
Market  streets,  a  location  from  Avhence  has  sprung  sevei-al  of 
the  largest  business  houses  in  the  West.  From  a  small  begin- 
ning he  built  up  a  large  trade,  continuing  alone  until  1805, 
when,  upon  the  admission  of  Dr.  Charles  Knower,  E.  G.  and 

21 


322 


TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


A.  M.  Leslie,  Jr..  the  firm  name  was  changed  to  A.  M.  Leslie 
&Co. 

The  rapid  increase  of  business  forced  the  firm  into  a  more 
central  location  and  capacious  building,  and  in  1868  they 
removed  to  their  present  quarters,  under  Mercantile  Library 
Hall.  Every  year  has  witnessed  a  large  extension  of  their 
trade,  to  meet  which  properly  their  facilities  have  been  pro- 
portionately increased,  until  now  they  are  doubtless  the 
largest  dealers  in  their  line  west  of  Philadelphia,  doing  a 
jobbing  trade  which  extends  from  Maine  to  Texas,  and  from 
North  Carolina  to  the  Pacific  coast,  and  a  retail  business 
truly  immense.  The  firm  makes  a  specialty  of  orthopaedic 
apparatus,  trusses,  batteries,  etc.,  carrying  at  all  times  a  large 
assortment  of  these  goods. 

In  dental  material  and  instruments,  A.  M.  Leslie  &  Co. 
acknov/lcdge  few  competitors,  carrying  such  a  colossal  stock 
that  they  are  enabled  to  fill  orders  for  every  conceivable  thing 
belonging  to  the  profession  at  prices  as  low  as  any  house  in 
the  United  States.  They  manufacture  many  of  their  own 
goods  and  buy  all  they  handle  in  such  quantities  as  to  get  the 
benefit  of  the  laro-est  trade  discounts. 

The  firm  also  makes 
a  sjiecialty  of  surgical 
instruments,  and  in  their 
stock  may  be  found  all 
the  latest  inventions  in 
the  science  of  suj'gery, 
and  a  quantity  sufiicient 
to  provide  every  physi- 
cian in  the  West  with  a 
complete  case.  In  fact, 
both  in  dental  and  sur- 
gical appliances  there  are  few  houses  on  the  continent  that 
are  equal  to  A.  M.  Leslie  &  Co.  in  the  amount  of  capital 
invested  and  the  choice  selection  of  stock  displayed. 

One  of  the  popular  features  of  this  firm  is  "Leslie's  Im- 
proved Saddle-Bags,"  for  physicians,  which  has  found  a  sale 
equal  to  the  aggregate  sale  of  any  other  five  bags  now  on  the 
market*     They  were  patented  by   Mr.    Leslie  in    1871,  and 


DENTISTRY 


323 


i-epresent  in  combination  every  rc(]niroment  and  convenience 
a  physician  can  desire,  being  composed  of  two  metal  l)oxes, 
covered  with  a  contin- 
uons  piece  of  leather . 
which  forms  the  hinge, 
and  admits  of  the  re- 
moval of  any  vial  with- 
out displacing  the  oth- 
ers, as  seen  in  the 
accompanying  engrav- 
ing. The  bags  are 
made  so  firmly  as  to 
resist  without  injury 
any  reasonable  con- 
cussion :  no  wood  or 
pasteboard  is  used  in 
their  construction  ; 
they  are  put  together 
by  rivets,  and  will  out- 
last three  pairs  of  sewed  bags  ;  they  are  more  compact,  con- 
venient, durable,  and  cheaper  than  any  others  ever  made, 
and  have  a  reputation  for  general  excellence  unequaled. 


THE  NEW  YORK  DENTAL  ROOMS. 

Dentistry  has  in  the  last  few  years  attained  a  position  which 
the  most  visionary  prophet  could  not  have  imagined  possil)le 
twenty  years  ago.  In  former  times  the  loss  of  teeth  was  an 
affliction  not  only  irreparable,  but  with  society's  votaries  the 
next  thing  to  loss  of  character.  Now,  however,  nature  is 
supplanted  by  a  more  perfect  adornment  of  the  facial  features, 
and  to  lose  a  tooth  is  only  to  get  a  handsomer  one.  Unfortu- 
nately the  dentist's  profession  has  its  ills,  or  rather  becomes 
the  superinducing  cause  of  a  more  real  affliction  than  the  loss 
of  teeth,  for  in  every  trade  and  profession  there  are  empirics, 


324  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

who  make  their  patrons  suffer,  and  in  proportion  destroy  a 
hope  of  permanent  relief  from  the  attendant  difficulties  of  bare 
mouths  or  aching  teeth.  It  is  therefore  of  the  first  importance 
in  the  repair  of  those  indispensable  auxiliaries  of  our  living  to 
secure  the  services  of  a  strictly  first-class  dentist,  whose  work 
is  always  certain  to  give  perfect  satisfaction.  The  following 
brief  history  of  one  of  the  most  reliable  dental  establishments 
in  St.  Louis  is  therefore  worthy  of  perpetuation  in  "  A  Tour 
of  St.  Louis." 

In  1868,  K.  T.  Sanders,  D.  D.  S.,  came  to  St.  Louis  with  a 
large  experience  acquired  in  the  East,  and  in  1871  founded  the 
New  York  Dental  Rooms,  locating  at  No.  820  AVashington  Ave- 
nue, where  he  has  ever  since  remained.  The  price  of  dental 
work  had  been,  l)cfore  his  coming,  most  extravagant,  and  one 
of  his  first  steps  was  to  place  the  entire  profession  on  a  more 
reasonable  basis.  Success  attended  him  from  the  beginning,  for 
low  prices  attracted  custom,  and  those  who  applied  to  him  were 
so  Avell  satisfied  with  his  work  that  they  sent  others,  and  his 
business  has  been  permanentlv  and  rnpidly  increasing  ever 
since.  So  popular  indeed  had  he  become  that  in  lhe3'ear  1873 
another  establishment  located  near  the  New  York  Dental 
Rooms,  and  hung  out  an  attractive  sign — "  The  New  York 
Dental  Association  " — with  the  evident  intention  of  securing 
a  portion  at  least  of  Dr.  Sanders'  business  by  a  deception 
readily  apparent.  Application  was  made  to  the  coui'ts,  and 
after  the  question  was  heard,  the  "The  New  York  Dental 
Association"  was  perpetually  enjoined  from  using  such  a 
title. 

Dr.  Sanders  has  been  the  most  successful  dentist  that  ever 
followed  the  profession  in  St.  Louis.  He  has  made  over  eight 
thousand  sets  of  teeth  since  the  date  of  his  establishment,  and 
has  accumulated  a  fortune.  His  uniform  price  for  the  best 
set  of  teeth  is  eight  dollars — so  low  that  it  has  revolutionized 
the  profession  in  favor  of  the  public.  Such,  in  brief,  is  the 
history  of  the  "  New  York  Dental  Rooms,"  an  institution 
compared  with  which  all  others  m  St.  Louis  are  almost  insig- 
nificant. 


TURKISH   BATHS.  325 

DR.  GEO.  F.  ADAMS.— Turkish  Baths. 

The  Turkish  Bath  has  become  one  of  the  great  sanitary  and 
picasnrc-imparting  institutions  of  this  country.  True,  it  is  an 
Oriental  importation,  but  under  the  gleam  of  the  crescent  the 
Turkish  Bath  is  only  a  crude,  si)iritlcss  ablution,  devoid  of 
those  cxhilaratiug  auxiliaries  which  characterize  the  bath  as 
administered  in  America.  The  credit  for  the  introduction  of 
this  most  pleasurable  and  curative  agent  in  St.  Louis,  is  due 
to  Dr.  Geo.  F.  Adams,  who  superintended  the  construction  of 
the  first  establishment,  and  shortly  afterwards,  in  ISGO,  l)uilt 
a  bath  of  his  own,  at  No.  1603  Washington  Avenue,  which  was 
opened  to  the  public  on  the  eighth  of  October  of  that  year. 
Dr.  Adams  had,  for  years  previously,  conducted  two  largo 
Turkish  Bath  institutions  in  Boston,  and  his  experience  gave 
him  a  great  advantage,  which  was  illustrated  by  the  largo 
patronage  he  received.  The  bath,  under  Dr.  Adams'  experi- 
enced and  able  management,  prospered  rapidly,  and  in  1872  he 
began  the  construction  of  a  much  larger  and  more  complete 
institution  at  No.  311  North  Seventh  Street,  wliich  was  com- 
pleted and  opened  for  patrons  on  June  20,  1873.  Various  im- 
provements have  since  been  made,  until  it  now  stands  confessed 
one  of  the  finest,  best  arranged,  best  ventilated  and  most  com- 
fortable Turkish  Bath  houses  in  either  America  or  Europe.  It 
is  patronized  by  the  best  citizens,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  has 
cured  more  disease  in  the  same  time  than  nearly  all  the  city 
physicians.  In  fact,  for  malaria,  bad  colds,  neuralgia,  rheuma- 
tism, cancer,  and  diseases  superinduced  by  torpid  liver,  there  is 
no  remedy  so  efficacious  as  this  bath.  Its  virtues  arc  being 
fast  disclosed,  and  every  year  witnesses  a  large  increase  of  pat- 
ronage, which  must  continue  in  proportion  to  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  mists  of  prejudice  arc  dispelled  by  the  rays  of  truth. 

Dr.  Adams  is  a  gentleman  well  versed  in  materia  medico, 
was  a  practitioner  for  thirty  years,  and  for  three  years  surgeon 
in  the  United  States  army.  He  is  convinced  by  innumeral)lc 
evidences  that  the  Turkish  Bath  is  more  effective  than  physic ; 
and,  owning  one  of  the  most  perfect  establishments  for  the 
satisfactory  administration  of  the  bath,  he  is  entitled  to  the  pat- 
ronao-e  of  not  only  all  St.  Louisans,  but  also  of  all  her  visitors. 


326  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

GIBERT  BROS. — Keep's  Partly-Made  Shirts. 

An  article  of  real  merit,  if  properly  placed  before  the  pub- 
lic, is  quickly  recognized  and  its  success  assured.  One  of  the 
most  noteworthy  illustrations  of  this  fact  is  seen  in  the  Ande- 
spread  popularity  of  Keep's  Patent  Partly-Made  Dress  Shirts. 
Although  but  a  few  years  established  they  now  rank  among 
the  standard  productions  of  the  many  industries  of  our  coun- 
try. The  beginning  of  this  important  enterprise  "was  caused 
by  one  of  those  incidents  of  every-day  life  which  frequently 
lead  to  grand  results.  A  friend  of  Mr.  O.  H.  Keep,  the  great 
New  York  shirt-maker,  came  to  him  one  day  and  said  :  "Keep, 
my  wife  is  a  good  hand  with  the  needle,  and  has  tried  repeat- 
edly to  make  my  shirts,  but  she  can  not  cut  them  out  properly, 
so  that  those  she  makes  are  always  a  misfit.  Can  you  not  cut 
out  some  shirts  for  me  and  sew  the  difficult  parts  together,  so 
that  she  can  finish  them  without  making  any  mistakes?"  Mr, 
Keep  replied  that  he  could,  and  thereupon  took  the  gentle- 
man's measure,  after  w^hich  he  cut  out  several  shirts  and  had 
the  more  particular  parts  sewed  together  by  his  skillful  opera- 
tives. The  partly-made  shirts  were  then  sent  to  the  friend's 
wife,  who  completed  them  in  the  most  satisfactory  and  perfect 
manner.  Thus  w^as  solved  the  intricate  problem  of  making 
perfect-fitting  shirts  at  home,  and  that,  too,  by  ladies  unskilled 
in  needlework.  These  circumstances  w^ere  the  inception  of  Mr. 
Keep's  partly-made  shirts.  He  at  once  applied  for  and  re- 
ceived letters  patent  from  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
and  began  the  manufacture  of  his  new  invention.  Keep's 
partly-made  dress  shirts,  lift  a  vexatious  burden  from  all  house- 
wives who  have  heretofore  felt  that  for  economy's  sake  the 
shirts  must  be  made  at  home.  No  matter  how  beautifully 
they  hemstitch  the  collars  and  wristbands,  they  have  always 
been  aware  that  shirts  of  their  own  fashionino;  are  Avorn  under 
protest,  for  the  simj^le  reason  that  only  trained  experts,  work- 
ing by  rule,  ever  make  a  band  just  the  right  length  or  a  bosom 
to  fit  without  wrinkle  or  fold.  These  partly-made  shirts,  Avith 
the  bosom  set  in  and  the  neck-band  adjusted — leaving  only  the 
simplest  portions  of  the  garment  to  l)e  finished,  and  costing  six 
dollars  for  six  shirts,  less  than  the  same  quality  of  material 


PARTLY-MADE    SHIRTS.  327 

could  be  piirchasct!  at  retail — render  it  possible  for  shirts, 
warranted  to  fit  the  most  particular  to  be  forthcoming,  with 
but  little  labor. 

The  material  used  is  the  best  Wamsutta  muslin  and  Irish 
linen,  bosoms  three-ply,  all  linen.  To  facilitate  and  extend 
his  business  Mr.  Keep  opened  branch  establishments  in  all  the 
large  cities,  among  the  most  im})ortant  of  which  is  the  one  in 
St.  Louis,  under  the  proprietorship  of  the  Gibert  Bros.,  at 
No.  621  Olive  Street.  This  firm  began  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  Keep's  partly-made  shirts  on  the  1st  of  January,  1876, 
and  by  vigor  and  enterprise,  supported  by  the  superiority  of 
the  articles  they  handle,  have  built  up  a  business  commensurate 
with  their  deserts.  The  rapid  increase  of  the  demand  for 
their  shirts  necessitated  the  erection  of  a  large  addition  by  the 
Gibert  Bros,  to  their  original  house,  in  which  a  large  number 
of  sewing  machines,  operated  by  skillful  shirt-makers,  are  con- 
stantly humming,  turning  out  the  partly-made  and  completing 
shirts  under  Mr.  Keep's  patent.  Their  trade  continues  to  in- 
crease at  a  ratio  which  demonstrates  the  fact  that  this  new 
article  is  superseding  all  other  shirts  in  the  market,  and  is  fast 
makino-  its  wav  to  the  standard  favor  of  every  comniunitv. 

In  this  short  article  it  is  impossible  to  enumerate  in  detail 
all  the  advantages  which  these  goods  offer,  and  for  the  conven- 
ience of  those  residing  at  a  distance,  the  Messrs.  Gibert  Bros, 
will  mail  free  to  any  address  full  descriptive  circulars,  with  sam- 
ples of  styles  and  material,  and  complete  directions  for  self- 
measurement  .  The  Messrs .  Gibert  Bros .  are  thoroughly  enter- 
prising, giving  their  personal  attention  to  all  orders,  and  their 
reputation  is  such  that  in  St.  Louis  they  enjoy  the  highest 
respect  and  confidence  of  the  community. 


328  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

CARROLL  &  POWELL'S  INSURANCE  AGENCY. 

The  business  of  insurance  has  become  a  great  factor  in  the 
evolution  of  the  world's  commerce,  and  its  uses  have  ever  been 
increasing  since  its  mutual  utility  was  discovered.  It  is  a 
distinct  business,  in  the  prosecution  of  which  a  most  delicate 
relationship  must  be  observed  by  the  agent,  whose  duty  is  to 
zealously  guard  the  interests  of  the  insured  equally  with  those 
of  the  company  he  represents.  Acting  in  this  double  capacity, 
each  alike  important  to  his  good  standing  and  reputation,  a 
successful  agent  must  necessarily  be  the  possessor  of  a  high 
order  of  business  talent.  Not  only  the  ability  to  properly  con- 
struct a  policy,  binding  and  equitable,  but  also  the  judgment 
to' estimate  values  and  determine  the  liability  of  accident.  A 
reliable  agency  can,  therefore,  only  be  ascertained  by  inquiry 
as  to  the  duration  and  extent  of  its  business,  the  standing  of 
the  companies  represented,  and  the  satisfaction  manifested  by 
the  assured.  Applying  these  positive  tests,  the  firm  of  Carroll 
&  Powell  becomes  at  once  a  representative  underwriting 
agency  of  St.  Louis.  They  have  had  long  years  of  the  most 
active  experience  in  fire,  marine,  hull  and  cargo  insurance, 
and  the  adjustment  of  innumerable  losses  growing  out  of  such 
risks. 

Not  only  are  their  customers  completely  satisfied,  as 
evidenced  by  the  permanent  patronage  from  many  of  the  largest 
establishments  in  the  city,  but  the  companies  they  represent 
have  implicit  confidence  both  in  their  ability  and  integrity,  and 
thus  a  reciprocal  interest  is  established,  which  is  of  mutual  im- 
portance. The  firm  in  question  has  also  acquired  agood  name 
with  customers  by  their  unusually  prompt  and  capable  atten- 
tion to  losses,  which  is  the  more  noticeable  because  rot  com- 
mon. The  same  care  is  observed  in  obtaining  immediate  set- 
tlement for  all  losses  that  occur  as  when  insurance  premiums 
are  being  received,  thus  sharing  the  value  and  benefit  of  honest 
and  honorable  insurance. 

The  companies  they  represent  in  St.  Louis  include  the 
Insurance  Company  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  with  assets 
$621,794.42;  La  Caisse  Gcnerale  des  Assurances,  of  Paris, 
France,  assets,  $5,210,000  ;  Watertown,  of  Watertown,  N.  Y., 


INSURANCE.  329 

assets,  $741,208.00;  Kenton,  of  Covington,  Ky.,  assets, 
$248,007.04;  Boatman's,  of  Pittsburgh,  assets,  $270,728.55; 
and  the  Pennsylvania,  of  Pittsburgh,  assets,  $180,808.23. 
The  fire  department  of  their  city  business  is  under  the  man- 
agement of  W.  D.  Van  Blarcom,  whose  long  experience  and 
acknowledged  ability  as  an  underwriter  is  another  assurance  of 
satisfaction  to  all  their  dealers. 


LIFE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA. 

The  Life  Association  of  America  was  organized  for  business 
in  the  month  of  June,  1868,  the  late  Capt.  John  J.  Roe  being 
its  first  President.  Many  of  the  principal  l)usiness  men  of  St. 
Louis  have  been  at  different  times  connected  with  its  manao-o- 

o 

ment. 

Besides  large  sums  paid  to  policy-holders  in  the  way  of 
dividends  and  for  purchase  of  policies,  the  Association  has  paid 
for  death  losses  since  its  organization  more  than  four  millions 
of  dollars. 

The  officers  of  the  Association  for  the  present  year  are  : 
Henry  W.  Hough,  President;  Joseph  "W.  Branch,  Vice-Presi- 
dent; Geo.  H.  Loker,  Second  Vice-President;  E.  "»V.  Bryant, 
Actuary  ;  Felix  Coste,  Treasurer;  and  John  S.  Pierce,  Secre- 
tary. 

The  building  on  the  corner  of  Market  and  Seventh  streets 
(formerly  Masonic  Hall),  belongs  to  the  Association  ;  a  portion 
of  the  building  is  occupied  as  its  home  office. 

The  Association  has  been  for  some  years  compelled  to  spend 
larsresumsin  defendins;  itself  from  unwarrantal)le  suits  brought 
ao-ainst  it.  It  has  almost  univ^ersally  come  out  first  best ;  and 
we  hope  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  Association  will 
a«-ain  enter  the  field  for  new  business,  able  to  contend  success- 
fully  with  all  competitors. 


STOCK  yai:ds,  33  J 

ST.  LOUIS  NATIONAL  STOCK  YARDS. 

Of  the  numerous  institutions  built  in  St.  Louis  duriuir  tlie 
past  quarter  of  a  century  calculated  to  advance  her  commercial 
interests,  there  are  none  of  such  vast  importance  as  the 
National  Stock  Yards.  Our  natural  location  and  terminal 
facilities,  great  as  they  were,  for  many  years  failed  to  secure 
the  cattle  trade,  which,  though  naturally  our  own,  passed  our 
doors  and  found  a  market  in  Chicago.  The  vast  herds  of  li\  e 
stock  raised  on  the  great  ranges  of  Kansas,  Indian  Territorv, 
Texas,  New  Mexico,  and  Colorado,  went  by  our  market  as 
though  St.  Louis  were  a  small  way-station,  to  be  stoi)ped  at 
only  M^hen  the  train  was  flagged.  The  building  of  the  Na- 
tional Stock  Yards  has  changed  this,  however,  and  made  our 
city  one  of  the  great  stock  markets  of  the  Avorld. 

It  is  difficult  to  properly  describe  so  large  an  institution  as 
the  National  Stock  Yards,  so  that  the  reader,  wholly  unac- 
quainted with  its  admirable  facilities,  can  even  approxi- 
mate its  advantages.  The  yards  cover  one  hundred  acres, 
and  are  divided  by  numerous  avenues,  four  of  which,  by 
crossing  at  right  angles  in  the  center,  separate  the  yards  into 
four  equal  parts.  These  are  again  subdivided  into  pens  of 
various  sizes  to  accommodate  large  and  small  lots  of  cattle. 
The  pens  are  paved  with  limestone,  which  forms  a  solid  sur- 
face, and  the  avenues  are  floored  nicely  with  heavy  plank,  so 
that  however  wet  the  weather,  neither  the  live  stock  nor  opera- 
tives are  subjected  to  the  annoyance  of  mud  and  water.  Every 
pen  is  provided  with  commodious  sheds,  hayracks,  feed  ])oxes, 
water,  etc.,  and  are  well  drained  ;  the  animals  are  therefore 
kept  in  prime  condition  and  show  off  to  the  best  advantage. 
About  two-thirds  of  the  capacity  of  the  yards  is  devoted  to 
cattle  pens,  while  the  north  side  is  used  only  for  shipping  and 
receiving,  by  means  of  model  chutes,  and  the  west  division  is 
for  hogs  and  sheep.  The  arrangement  throughout  is  most  ad- 
mirable, but  the  facilities  for  handling  hogs  and  sheep  are  sur- 
prisingly perfect.  These  animals  are  housed  in  special  sheds 
made  for  them,  and  are  as  carefully  protected  as  though  they 
were  bondholders.  The  floors  are  kept  as  clean  almost  as  a 
well-conditioned  household,  beinir  washed  daily   by  means  of 


332  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

water  drawn  from  the  reservoirs.  The  hog-house  is  one 
thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  feet  in  length  by  one 
hundred  feet  in  width,  and  divided  into  one  hundred  and 
twelve  yards.  Adjoining  it  is  a  crib  which  has  a  capacity  for 
ten  thousand  bushels  of  corn,  from  which  the  animals  in  the 
pens  can  be  fed  without  the  least  difficulty.  The  sheep-house 
is  five  hundred  and  seventy- two  feet  in  length  and  one  hundred 
feet  wide,  and  has  a  large  exercise  lot  in  front.  Both  these 
houses  have  several  doors  on  the  west  side,  through  which  the 
animals  are  driven  on  to  a  platform  two  thousand  feet  long  and 
loaded  and  unloaded  expeditiously,  as  the  cars  come  immedi- 
ately alongside  the  sheds,  with  the  flooring  of  the  cars  on  a 
level  with  the  surface  of  the  platform.  The  capacity  of  the 
yards  for  loading  or  unloading  is  seventy  cars  at  one  time,  or, 
counting  time  for  switching,  two  hundred  and  eighty  cars  per 
hour. 

The  paving  of  the  yards  is  chiefly  of  magnesian  limestone, 
and  is  as  complete  as  the  pavement  of  our  city.  One  of  the 
great  features  of  the  yards  is  its  sewerage  system,  which  com- 
prises ten  miles  of  finely  constructed  sewers  and  a  drainage  of 
the  most  perfect  character. 

The  capacity  of  the  yards  is  sufiicient  for  the  easy  accom- 
modation of  12,000  cattle,  25,000  hogs,  7,600  sheep,  250 
horses,  and  500  mules.     The  cost  of  the  yards,  was  $1 ,700,000. 

In  addition  to  the  general  conveniences  and  superior  con- 
struction of  the  yards,  there  is  a  fine  exchange  building,  in 
which  transactions  are  facilitated.  This  building  is  a  large 
brick  structure,  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  feet  long  by  forty- 
four  feet  broad,  and  is  three  stories  in  height,  with  a  well- 
finished  basement.  There  are  fourteen  rooms  in  the  building, 
which  are  occupied  by  live  stock  commission  merchants,  while 
the  main  part  of  the  first  floor  is  used  by  the  company  for 
general  purposes,  and  recently  the  bank  of  H.  L.  Newman  & 
Co.  has  been  added,  the  transactions  of  which  are  now  im- 
mense. 

To  the  end  that  live  stock  men  seeking  this  market  might 
find  every  convenience  and  facility  offered  by  any  other  mar- 
ket on  the  continent,  a  magnificent  hotel,  called  in  honor  of 
the  first  President  of  the  yards,  "  Allerton  House,"  was  built 


STOCK    YAKOS.  333 

the  same  time  as  the  yinxls,  and  is  locatotl  near  the  southeast 
corner  of  the  cattle  i)ens.  The  buikliuii-  and  furni^hinn;  cost 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dolhirs,  and  nothing  is  omitted 
to  make  it  in  every  respect  first  class.  It  is  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  in  breadth  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  feet  wide, 
four  stories  in  height,  with  finished  basement,  and  lias  one 
hundred  elegant  rooms.  There  is  telegraph  communication 
with  the  Exchange  building  and  hotel,  and,  in  fact,  everything 
desirable  for  comfortable  living  and  the  expeditious  and  satis- 
factory handling  of  live  stock. 

The  President,  Kelson  Morris,  of  Chicago,  is  one  of  the 
largest  packers  and  cattle  dealers  in  America,  and  a  gentleman 
whose  success  is  the  best  evidence  of  his  administrative  ability. 
Isaac  II.  Knox,  who  occupies  the  triple  position  of  Vice-Presi- 
dent, Secretary  and  Treasurer,  is  an  able  official,  specially 
qualified  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his  responsible  trusts.  lie 
was  one  of  the  original  founders  of  the  yards,  and  has  the 
most  extended  acquaintance  among  stock  dealers  throughout 
the  country.  His  personal  supervision  is  seen  throughout  the 
yards,  and  the  constant  vigilance  he  maintains  over  the  details 
of  the  business  clearly  evidence  his  pride  and  ambition  to  see 
the  National  Yards  not  only  the  largest  in  capacity,  but  also 
the  greatest  in  reputation  and  transactions  on  the  two  hemis- 
pheres. Charles  Jones,  the  Superintendent,  is  thoroughly 
posted  in  the  cattle  trade,  and  with  a  most  general  acquaint- 
ance and  a  naturally  administrative  disposition,  his  ser- 
vices are  of  the  most  valuable  character  to  the  company  he 
represents. 

Such  is  the  history  of  an  institution  in  which  St.  Louis 
takes  special  pride.  Although  the  yards  arc  really  in  Illinois, 
they  are  by  no  means  alien  to  our  city,  but  are  one  of  the  nol)le 
brotherhood  of  our  valuable  commercial  factors,  whose  expan- 
sive character  is  a  mirror  in  which  we  see  reflected  the  grow- 
ing boundary  of  our  great  municipality. 


334  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

REILLEY  &  WOLFORT.— Horses   and  Mules. 

St.  Louis  is  no  less  a  great  horse  and  mule  market  than  she 
is  the  receiving  centre  of  the  cattle  trade  of  the  South  and 
West ;  in  fact,  in  her  rivalry  with  Chicago,  St.  Louis  is  a  much 
better  market  for  horses  and  mules  than  her  enterprising  lake- 
side neighbor. 

In  the  year  1858,  Reilley  &  Schulherr  established  a  horse 
and  mule  market  at  No.  1540  Broadway,  where  they  purchased, 
fed  and  sold  stock  on  their  own  account,  and  soon  created  an 
excellent  business,  which  demanded  an  extension  of  their 
building.  The  additions  included  Nos.  1538,  1540,  1542  and 
1544,  which  gave  a  stabling  capacity  for  five  hundred  head  of 
stock.  In  1864,  Mr.  Wolfort  purchased  an  interest  in  the 
business,  and  shortly  thereafter,  in  1866,  they  built  another 
laro-e  stable  on  the  corner  of  Broadway  and  Cass  Avenue,  and 
subsequently  added  to  it  until  it  now  includes  Nos.  1500, 
1502,  1504,  1506  and  1508. 

In  1875,  Mr.  Schulherr  disposed  of  his  interest  in  the 
stables,  since  which  time  the  name  of  the  firm  has  been  Reilley 
&  Wolfort,  who  are  the  sole  proprietors.  Their  business  has 
grown  so  rapidly,  that  they  have  been  compelled  to  lease 
auxiliary  stables  elsewhere,  one  on  the  corner  of  Broadway 
and  Warren  Street,  and  a  large  stabling  place  opposite  their 
first  building,  giving  them  a  capacity  for  one  thousand  horses 
and  mules,  which  they  can  care  for  without  crowding. 

Reilley  &  Wolfort  now  do  the  largest  business  in  their  line 
of  any  firm  in  the  West,  their  sales  last  year  aggregating  one 
million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  are  steadily  increas- 
ing. Their  stables  are  headquarters  for  the  Government  horse 
and  mule  purchasing  agents,  and  they  have  for  several  years  sold 
annually  to  the  Government  from  three  to  four  thousand  head 
of  stock.  Their  reputation  for  honesty  is  unquestioned,  and 
since  they  have  made  it  a  cardinal  rule  from  the  beginning  to 
trade  upon  a  just  basis  only  their  patronage  includes  the  best 
stock  traders  in  the  country.  They  have  every  facility  to  meet 
the  wants  of  their  customers,  and,  at  this  date,  are  establishing 
telephonic  connection  between  their  stables,  to  facilitate  and 
harmonize  their  immense  interests. 


HIDES.  335 

B.  H.  NEWELL.— Hides. 

Enterprise  and  undaunted  courage  are  elements  that  win  in 
any  of  the  activities  of  life.  Mr.  Newell  began  some  fourteen 
years  ago,  in  this  city,  as  a  hide  l^roker,  aiming  to  represent 
the  interest  of  buyers  who  wi.shod  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
benefits  of  this  market  without  the  labor  of  personal  visits 
when  stocks  were  required.  He  has  worked  up  a  handsome 
trade  for  this  market.  Tanners  and  other  buyers  make  him 
their  medium  for  extensive  purchases,  and  his  operations,  large 
as  they  have  been  in  the  past,  are  constantly  increasing.  He 
guards  with  scrupulous  care  the  interest  of  those  whom  he  rep- 
resents, and  a  very  reasonable  commission  is  charged,  so  that 
dealers  operating  through  him  obtain  the  benefits  of  the  very 
best  figures  possible.  Hides  and  sheep  pelts  are  his  special- 
ties. Mr.  Newell  has  been  successful  and  enjoys  the  confidence 
of  the  business  community.  His  ofiSce  and  ware-house  is 
at  No.  724  North  Main  Street. 


JAMES  BLACKMAN.— Hides. 

The  crrowth  of  the  hide  trade  in  St.  Louis  is  worthy  of  note. 
The  opening  of  so  many  railroads  has  tended  to  make  this 
citv  a  center  for  the  accumulation  of  stocks,  at  the  same  time 
a  most  favorable  market  for  the  tanneries  of  the  East  and 
North. 

Mr.  James  Blackman  has  been  long  regarded  as  one  of  our 
most  enterprising  citizens  ;  a  gentleman  whose  integrity  has 
popularized  him  in  all  business  circles.  His  immense  ware- 
house, situated  at  No.  610  North  Levee,  extending  through  to 
No.  618  Commercial  Street,  is  a  scene  of  activity  and  life  in 
his  operations  in  hides,  sheep  pelts,  furs,  wool,  tallow,  and 
everything  incident  to  such  a  business. 


336  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

THE  ST.  LOUIS  SHOT  TOWER. 

The  completion  of  the  St.  Louis  Sliot  Tower,  in  the  year 
1847,  marked  an  era  in  the  history  of  our  city  and  the  entire 
"West,  and  is  referred  to  as  the  inaugurating  enterprise  of 
commercial  St.  Louis.     The  history  of  its  construction  and 


the  processes  of  change  through  which  the  Shot  Tower  has 
passed  in  its  development  to  the  very  important  position  it 
now  occupies  among  the  great  institutions  of  the  Western 
empire,  is  both  interesting  and  instructive. 

In  January,  1844,  Ferdinand  Kennett  began  the  erection 


SHOT    TOWER.  337 

of  a  shot  tower  on  Elm,  between  jSIiiin  and  Second  streets. 
The  Avork  was  pushed  rapidly,  and  in  the  following  October 
the  to>ver  had  reached  an  elevation  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy  feet ;  the  intention  was  to  make  it  one  hundred  and 
ninety-five  feet  in  height.  Considerable  fear  was  excited  on 
account  of  its  treacherous  appearance,  and  a  committee  of 
architects  was  appointed  to  examine  the  tower  and  report 
upon  its  safety.  The  committee  concluded  their  examination 
at  noon  on  a  bright  October  day,  and  reported  the  structure 
solid  and  perfectly  safe.  In  just  two  hours  afterwards  the 
tower  fell  with  a  terrific  crash,  destrovino;  several  buildiuirs, 
but  though  there  were  many  narrow  escapes,  no  one  was 
killed. 

The  material  of  the  demolished  tower  was  collected  in 
shape,  and  upon  the  selection  of  a  new  site  on  Lewis,  between 
Bates  and  Smith  streets,  near  the  river,  it  was  hauled  to  the 
place,  and  early  in  the  following  year,  1845,  the  work  of 
excavating  for  a  new  tower  was  begun.  Before  proceeding 
far  the  workmen  struck  a  solid  stone  of  immense  size,  upon 
which  was  erected  the  tower,  and  in  January,  1847,  the 
graceful  structure  had  reached  a  heioht  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-six  feet,  and  the  works  were  completed. 

In  1849  the  Shot  Tower  passed  into  the  hands  of  Kennett, 
Simonds  &  Co.,  and  so  continued  under  that  title  until  1858, 
when  the  business  was  incorporated  under  the  title  of  the  St. 
Louis  Shot  Tower  Company,  and  so  continues.  The  capital 
stock  of  the  company  is  $200,000,  and  the  annual  consumption 
of  lead  in  the  manufacture  of  buck  shot,  bar  lead,  and  all  the 
numerous  sizes  of  shot,  is  from  5,000,000  to  6,000,000  pounds, 
valued  at  from  $400,000  to  $450,000. 

The  officers  of  this  grand  corporation  are :  G.  W.  Chad- 
bourne,  President ;  Theodore  Foster,  Secretary,  and  O.  G. 
Rule,  Superintendent. 

Mr.  Chadbourne  entered  the  manufactory  as  a  clerk  in 
1847,  but  by  an  inborn  capability,  sound  judgment  and  ster- 
ling business  character,  he  has  risen  to  the  chief  position,  m 
addition  to  which  he  has  become  one  of  the  leading  commer- 
cial men  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

Mr.    Foster  is  one   of    our   well-known   citizens   of  high 


338  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

social  and  business  standing,  and  a  gentleman  popular  among 
Western  dealers. 

Mr.  Rule  entered  the  employ  of  the  Shot  Tower  Company 
as  early  as  January,  1847,  and  passed  through  all  the  official 
gradations  until  1849,  when  he  was  made  Superintendent,  a 
position  he  has  ably  and  satisfactorily  filled  ever  since. 

The  products  of  the  St.  Louis  Shot  Tower  find  a  sale  in 
every  part  of  the  country,  and  by  the  employment  of  skillful 
hands  and  the  latest  and  most  valuable  patents,  the  company 
has  established  an  immense  business  and  gained  a  reputation 
for  the  excellence  of  their  shot  almost  unparalleled. 


A.  C.  DUNLEVY. — Galvanized  Iron  Cornices. 

The  ornamentation  of  public  and  private  buildings  has, 
from  the  foundation  of  Rome,  been  a  study  intimately  allied 
with  the  fine  arts,  and,  indeed,  much  of  the  architectural  adorn- 
ment of  buildings  in  the  mediaeval  age  was  done  by  sculptors 
and  the  finest  artists  in  wood  carving  and  frescoing.  The  ad- 
vancement of  succeeding  ages  has  continued  uninterrupted, 
however,  until  now  every  building  may  be  elaborately  orna- 
mented on  the  exterior  at  an  insignificant  cost  compared  with 
the  outlay  made  by  ancient  builders.  A  consummation  of  the 
most  extravagant  wish  for  a  beautiful  home  at  small  expense 
is  found  in  the  uses  of  galvanized  iron  for  cornices,  window- 
caps,  sky-lights,  etc. 

The  leading  manufacturer  of  sheet  metal  and  galvanized 
iron  in  the  West  is  A.  C.  Dunlevy,  whose  manufactory  is  at 
Nos.  515  North  Levee  and  520  Commercial  Street. 

The  use  of  galvanized  iron  for  building  cornices  is  fast  be- 
coming general,  and  if  the  entire  public  were  acquainted  with 
its  cheapness,  durability  and  beauty,  no  other  cornice  w^ould 
ever  be  used.  It  is  fiir  superior  to  wood,  stone,  or  cast-iron. 
It  resists  all  climatic  changes  and  atmospherical  influences,  and 
on  account  of  the  lightness  of  the  material  there  is  no  pressure 
on  the  walls  of  the  building,  and  it  is  easily  fitted  into  place. 


FLOURING    MILLS.  339 

These  points  of  superiority  are  based  upon  prime  considera- 
tions which  demonstrate  the  wisdom  of  usinir  jralvanizcd  iron 
not  only  for  cornices,  but  also  for  dormer  windows,  roofing, 
railings,  balustrades,  pinnacles,  conservatories,  and  in  short, 
every  place  where  iron  or  stone  is  used  ornamentally. 

Mr.  Dunlevy's  establishment  is  one  of  the  largest  of  the 
kind  in  America.  His  facilities  for  manufacturing  metal  goods 
of  the  character  named  are  unsurpassed.  Amon"-  the  lar^e 
public  buildings  he  has  roofed  and  provided  with  the  galvanized 
iron  cornice  may  be  mentioned  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Lindell  Hotel,  Singer  Building,  State  House  at  Springfield, 
Illinois,  and  hundreds  of  others  equally  large,  in  various  parts 
of  the  West. 

Mr.  Dunlevy  is  the  manufacturer  of  iron  ventilating  fire- 
proof sky-lights,  made  of  galvanized  iron,  with  heavy  plate- 
glass,  without  the  use  of  cement  or  putty.  In  short,  his  line 
of  manufacture  includes  everything  in  galvanized  iron,  also 
in  tin,  zinc,  sheet-iron,  copper,  etc.,  and  his  work  is  of  such  a 
superior  character  that  he  can  not  justly  recognize  any  com- 
petition. 


THE   YAEGER    MILLS. 


St.  Louis  being  the  center  of  the  great  wheat  belt  of  North 
America,  and  the  distributing  point  for  the  vast  i^roduct  of 
the  entire  West,  is  no  less  a  flour  manufacturing  city,  with 
the  finest  mills  on  the  continent.  The  representative  mill  of 
not  only  St.  Louis,  but  indeed  America,  is  the  one  erected  by 
the  Yacger  Milling  Company  in  1870,  at  Twenty-first  Street 
and  Clark  Avenue.  The  capacity  of  these  mills  is  twenty  run 
of  stone  and  one  thousand  two  hundred  barrels  of  flour  daily, 
and  their  principal  brands,  the  "  Purity,"  "  Double  Anchor  " 
and  "Four  Ace,"  are  known  throughout  the  United  Slates 
and  South  America  as  the  finest  flour  made  in  this  country. 
They  grind  winter  wheat  exclusively,  of  which  they  use  six 


340 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


thousand  bushels  daily,  and  the  demand  for  their  flour  is  so 
large  that  the  mills  are  kept  running  night  and  day,  and  no 
accumulation  of  stock  appears  possible.  The  mill  was  built 
with  a  capacity  for  forty  run  of  stone,  but  only  one  half  that 
number  have  been  put  in  use,  though  the  proprietors  are  now 
arrano-ino-  to  add  the  other  twenty  stone,  which,  when  done, 
will  make  the  Yaeger  Mills  the  largest  in  America. 

The  Yae<rer  Mills  is  the  Phoenix  which  arose  from  the 
ashes  of  the  Anchor  Mills,  that  were  totally  destroyed  on  the 
nio-ht  of  May  27,  1876.  Henry  C.  Yaeger  and  John  Crangle, 
the   principal   proprietors    of   the   old   and   popular   Anchor 


THE  YAEGER  MILLS. 

Millg,  with  an  indomitable  energy  characteristic  of  the  men, 
set  at  work  almost  before  the  smoke  ceased  ascending  from 
the  ruins  of  their  accumulations,  planning  the  construction  of 
a  new  and  larger  mill.  The  Yaeger  Mills  are  the  con- 
summation of  those  plans,  and  a  monument  worthy  of  their 
industry,  credit  and  ability  as  millers  and  citizens.  The 
remorseless  dragon  of  misfortune  which  followed  them 
through  two  conflagrations,  has  now,  it  is  earnestly  hoped  by 
every  St.  Louisan,  spent  its  force,  and  that  the  prosperity 
they  and  their  associates  deserve  will  bring  the  full  fruition  of 
their  hopes. 


BOOK    BINDING.  341 

BECKTOLD  &  CO. — Geneual  Book  Manufacturers. 

This  establishment,  at  No.  215  Pine  Street,  is  the  leading 
"book  manufacturing  house  in  the  West,  and  has  unexcelled 
facilities  for  executing  promptly,  and  in  the  latest  styles,  all 
kinds  of  binding.  The  rooms  are  fitted  up  ^vith  a  complete 
series  of  new  and  elegant  machinery  of  the  most  modern  and 
improved  kind,  at  a  very  heavy  expense.  All  work  is  done 
under  their  own  supervision,  hence  they  can  not  fail  to  give 
satisfaction.  This  firm  has  obtained  a  very  high  reputation  for 
the  excellent  manner  in  which  all  work  is  done  at  their  estal)- 
lishment.  They  pay  special  attention  to  publication  work  in 
bindings  of  every  description,  viz.  :  They  bind  editions  in 
cloth,  sheep,  calf,  or  morocco,  as  parties  may  desire ;  and 
w^here  parties  at  a  distance  prefer  to  do  their  own  binding, 
they  can  supply  them  with  cloth  or  leather  covers.  In  this 
branch  they  carry  a  large  assortment  of  designs,  ornaments, 
and  letterings,  and  their  stock  of  materials  in  all  lines  is 
second  to  no  other  house  in  the  country.  They  also  pay 
special  attention  to  jobbing  and  repairing  in  every  branch  in 
their  line. 

They  are  prepared  to  do  all  kinds  of  edge  gilding  either 
by  job  or  edition.  They  often  stamp  cases  only.  In  this  de- 
partment they  aim  to  fill  a  want  long  felt  by  the  trade,  and  by 
giving  it  their  personal  attention  their  patrons  receive  the  best 
work,  at  a  rate  they  could  not  possibly  do  as  cheap  if  executed 
by  themselves — in  this  they  expect  to  merit  their  patronage. 
All  their  machinery  is  driven  by  steam-power,  and  is  the  latest 
and  best,  especially  adapted  for  turning  out  the  finest  work. 
Having  plenty  of  room,  and  facilities  for  handling  any  amount 
of  work  which  may  be  offered,  they  invite  all  who  arc  inter- 
ested to  inspect  their  establishment  and  satisfy  themselves. 

The  thorough  and  entire  reliability  to  be  placed  on  all  work 
done,  and  the  high  character  of  this  firm  for  ability  and  hon- 
orable dealing  assure  to  this  establishment  a  long  continuance 
of  its  well-merited  prosperity. 


342  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

E.  F.  ADAMS — Photographer. 

Among  the  great  discoveries  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
that  of  Daguerre,  whose  ingenious  mind  gave  us  the  photo- 
oraph.  Like  all  the  most  important  inventions,  his  was  at 
iirst  crude,  but  pregnant  with  great  possibilities,  which  have 
since  been  realized,  and  now  photography  is  one  of  the  inval- 
uable adjuncts  to  our  high  civilization.  There  are  still  empirics 
in  the  trade,  however,  whose  imperfect  samples  stand  in  bold 
contrast  with  the  work  of  our  successful  operators,  only  to 
admonish  the  public  of  the  importance  of  patronizing  those 
whose  long  service  and  reputation  are  a  sure  guaranty  of 
satisfaction. 

The  representative  photographer  of  St.  Louis,  who  has 
attained  to  the  highest  excellence  in  his  beautiful  art,  is  un- 
doubtedly R.  F.  Adams,  whose  gallery  is  at  Ko.  215  North 
Fourth  Street.  Mr.  Adams  established  his  first  gallery  in  St. 
Louis  as  early  as  1862,  locating  in  the  second  floor  of  the 
building  situated  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Fourth  and 
Chestnut  streets.  He  remained  there,  receiving  a  large  pat- 
ronage, until  1865,  when  he  removed  to  his  present  quarters, 
where  he  has  conducted  the  business  uninterruptedly  and  suc- 
cessfully ever  since. 

Mr.  Adams  has  proven  himself  not  only  thorough  in  the 
mechanical  operations  of  the  trade,  but  has  been  progressive 
in  the  development  of  the  art.  His  specialties  are  in  ferreo- 
typing,  plain  and  colored  photograjjhs,  and  copying  and  en- 
larging for  the  trade.  His  gallery  presents  in  its  arrange- 
ment and  instruments  the  completeness  of  a  truly  representa- 
tive, first-class  establishment,  and  the  beautiful  specimens  of 
his  superior  art  attest  the  degree  of  proficiency  he  has  acquired 
in  the  long  years  he  has  so  patiently  and  perseveringly  devoted 
to  the  business. 

Mr.  Adams'  gallery  is  not  only  popular  with  our  best  citi- 
zens, but  the  character  of  his  work  is  such  that  it  has  acquired 
a  celebrity  throughout  a  large  section  of  country  having  com- 
mercial relations  with  St.  Louis,  and  he  has  an  extensive 
patronage  from  a  district  lying  within  a  radius  of  one  hundred 
miles  of  our  city. 


LAND    AND    IMMIGRATION    COMPANY.  343 

TEXAS  LAND  AND  IMMIGRATION  COMPANY. 

The  cattractive  features  of  the  great  State  of  Texas,  its 
fertility  of  soil,  salubrious  climate,  beautiful  prairies,  and 
illimitable  resources,  seemed  to  have  been  hidden  under  the 
cloud  of  an  imperfect  civilization  until  within  the  past  few 
years.  The  people  of  that  empire  had  raised  a  lone  star 
in  emblem  of  its  isolation  ;  and  the  stories  of  untrammeled 
barbarism,  disregard  of  law  and  jeopardy  of  life,  placed  a 
ban  upon  her  settlement,  and  left  her  millions  of  beautiful 
acres  barren  and  desolate.  How  changed  the  scene  now  !  One 
of  the  most  important  steps  taken  to  place  Texas  in  the  front 
rank  of  States,  was  the  organization,  under  the  laws  of 
Missouri,  of  the  Texas  Land  and  Immigration  (Company, 
which  directly  thereafter  received  the  indorsement  of  the  State 
of  Texas,  by  a  special  act  of  the  Legislature.  The  officers 
and  directors  of  this  most  reputable  and  solid  corporation 
include  some  of  the  best  men  in  the  State,  as  follows  :  Ex- 
Governor  B.  Gratz  Brown,  Sam.  M.  Dodd,  A.  F.  Shapleigh,  A. 
A.  Mellier,  Rodney  D.  Wells,  W.  C.  Orr,  Mayor  Honry^Over- 
stolz,  James  E.  Shorb,  James  Clark,  Lee  R.  Shrj'ock,  of  this 
city;  James  H.  Price,  Jefferson  City;  Andrew  J.  Dorn, 
Treasurer,  of  Texas ;  W.  W.  Long,  Grand  Master  of  the 
Texas  State  Grange  ;  and  F.  H.  Woodworth,  Secretary,  of 
St.  Louis. 

These  names  stand  at  the  very  summit  m  commercial 
circles  and  are  a  guarantee  that  the  company  is  worthy  the 
most  implicit  confidence  of  the  public.  Through  their  efforts 
the  tide  of  immigration  to  the  West  has  been  turned,  in  a  large 
measure,  to  Texas  ;  and  thousands  of  heretofore  untilled  lands 
are  now  yielding  their  abundant  harvests  to  the  new,  but  in- 
dustrious settler. 

The  company  own  and  control  over  three  million  acres  of 
fine  lands  in  the  State,  which,  having  been  bought  cheap,  thoy 
ofi*er  to  immigrants  at  low  prices  and  on  the  most  liberal  terms. 
They  have  a  co-operative  agent  in  every  county  in  the  State, 
so  that  those  contemplating  settling  in  the  great  empire  of  the 
Southwest,  can,  upon  application  to  Mr.  Woodworth,  receive 
the  fullest  information  in    regard  to  climate,  fertility  of  the 


344  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

soil,   price  of  lands,  best  time   for    occupation,  etc.,  without 
charge. 

It  is  importiint  to  immigrants  in  buying  lands,  that  they  deal 
with  a  reliable  party  or  corporation.  This  fact  was  made 
patent  by  recent  disclosures  in  the  traffic  of  forged  land 
warrants.  The  Texas  Land  and  Immigration  Company  is 
thoroughly  relia])le,  and  has  greater  facilities  for  pleasing 
buyers  than  any  other  parties  can  possibly  offer,  hence  it  is  to 
the  interest  of  bu^^ers  to  deal  directly  with  this  company. 


LONERGAN  &  TIIIEL'S  SECRET  SERVICE, 

One  of  the  most  interesting  institutions  of  St.  Louis,  was 
organized  in  1873  by  T.  E.  Lonergan,  late  a  chief  operative  in 
the  United  States  Secret  Service,  and  well  known  for  the  un- 
varied success  with  which  he  bagged  koniackers  and  first-class 
thieves,  and  G.  H.  Thiel,  formerly  of  the  legal  departments 
of  the  Kansas  Pacific  and  Wabash  railroads,  whose  services  in 
investigating  frauds  upon  railroad  and  other  corporations  had 
given  him  an  enviable  reputation  in  the  Northwest  and  West. 
Like  all  other  things,  the  establishment  at  first  met  with  tardy 
appreciation  in  St.  Louis,  but  in  time  its  work  was  felt  on  all 
the  roads  leading  out  of  this  city,  while  the  course  of  many 
important  criminal  cases  had  been  materially  shaped  by  its 
persistent  tracking  up  of  missing  links  in  testimony  ;  until  the 
enterprise  became  an  assured  success  to  its  founders,  as 
well  as  an  additional  source  of  security  to  railroad  corporations 
and  the  general  commercial  community.  Such  an  institution, 
when  once  it  has  fairly  earned  a  reputation  for  careful,  thorough 
work  among  its  operatives,  and  for  integrity  and  skill  on  the 
part  of  its  managers,  has,  unfortunately  for  the  country,  no 
trouble  in  keeping  its  whole  force  constantly  employed  ;  a  fact 
well  illustrated  by  the  circumstance  that  at  present  the  inves- 
tigations of  Lonergan  &  Thiel' s  Secret  Service  are  not  con- 
fined to  St.  Louis  or  the  State  of  Missouri,  but  extend  into 
nearly  all  the  States  and  Territories.  Some  of  its  lal)ors,  in- 
deed, have  become  matters  of  national  knowledge  and  social 


SECRET    SERVICE.  345 

history,  as  witness  the  suppression  of  the  strike  of  locomotive 
engineers  and  firemen  on  tlie  Boston  &  iMaine  Eaih-oad,  a  feat 
performed  by  Mr.  Lonergan  and  a  corps  of  special  operatives  ; 
the  discovery  of  important  evidence  in  the  famous  Long  Point 
tragedy  on  the  Vandalia  Railroad  ;  the  quelling  of  the  la))or 
troubles  on  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Railroad  in  187G,  and  the 
Von  Arnheim  sensation  of  1874,  which  furnished  news  for 
every  newspaper  throughout  the  land.  Some  of  the  cases 
worked  up  by  this  concern  have  become  matters  of  literature 
even,  as,  for  instance,  the  famous  and  thrilling  story  of  O'Con- 
ner  alias  Duval,  who,  fleeing  from  justice  in  a  Western  city, 
found  an  asylum  only  in  the  waters  of  St.  John's  River, 
Florida.  In  another  direction,  numerous  changes  on  railroads 
have  followed  the  testing  operations  of  this  agency,  of  which 
the  wholesale  change  of  conductors  on  the  Missouri  Pacific  in 
July,  1876,  is,  perhaps,  the  best  example.  Special  investiga- 
tions have  at  different  times  been  made  for  insurance  corpora- 
tions ;  for  corporations  engaged  in  all  the  branches  of  trade  ; 
for  banks  and  for  express  companies.  In  the  last-named 
species  of  duty,  the  Western  department,  under  Mr.  Thiel, 
has  a  brilliant  record,  culminating  in  the  case  of  the  Mt.  Ver- 
non (111.)  Bank  vs.  the  Adams  Exj^ress  Company.  This  was 
a  suit  to  recover  the  value  of  a  money  package  containing  sev- 
eral thousands  of  dollars,  sent  from  the  Mt.  Vernon  Bank  to 
its  depository  in  St.  Louis,  which  package,  on  arrival,  was 
found  to  contain  only  Ijrown  paper.  In  the  trial  of  the  cause 
the  best  legal  talent  of  Illinois  took  part,  but  the  evidence  ob- 
tained through  the  operatives  of  this  service  was  so  direct,  so 
conclusive,  and  so  well  stood  the  attack  of  severe  cross-exam- 
ination by  counsel,  and  the  counter-evidence  of  rival  opera- 
tives, that  under  the  court's  instruction,  the  jury  found  a 
unanimous  verdict  for  the  defendant.  In  a  case  that  occurred 
in  our  Criminal  Court,  so  direct  and  so  overpowering  and  ir- 
refragable was  the  testimony  of  the  representatives  of  this 
establishment,  that  no  counsel  could  be  induced  to  try  the 
case  on  its  merits,  and  after  some  seven  continuances,  includ- 
injr  one  forfeiture  of  bond,  the  defendant  obtained  a 
cessation  of  legal  proceedings  only  by  virtue  of  default  in 
jDleading  on  the  part  of  the  State's  officers.     To  sum  up,  tiie 


346  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Lonergan  &  Thiel  Secret  Service  possesses  the  following  in- 
valuable characteristics  :  two  heads  of  statf — one  at  New  York 
and  one  at  St.  Louis — that  by  reason  of  long,  varied  and  ardu- 
ous experience,  possess  abundantly  all  the  peculiar  experience 
required  for  their  delicate  work  ;  a  record  for  successful  duty 
and  personal  integrity  surpassed  by  no  similar  institution  in 
the  world ;  a  large  corps  of  well-trained,  skillful,  reliable 
operatives  ;  all  the  necessary  business  facilities,  in  the  shape  of 
large  capital,  abundant  financial  resources,  and  the  finest  set 
of  offices  for  this  or  any  other  business  in  the  West.  Such  a 
combination  of  primary  requisites,  iu  proper  hands,  can  not 
fail  to  continue  for  its  possessors  the  prestige  of  the  past  years, 
and  parties  desiring  any  difficult  or  delicate  investigation  con- 
ducted with  secrecy  and  dispatch  can  not  do  better  than  con- 
sult Lonergan  &  Thiel,  whose  Western  headquarters  are  on 
the  southwest  corner  of  Seventh  aud  Olive  streets,  St.  Louis, 
in  charge  of  Mr.  G.  H.  Thiel,  and  Eastern  center  at  82  and  84 
Nassau  Street,  New  York,  under  personal  watch  of  the  veteran 
Lonero-an. 


TRAVELERS'  INSURANCE  COMPANY. 

This  company,  with  its  home  office  at  Hartford,  Conn.,  is  a 
general  Accident  Insurance  Company,  granting  policies  of  in- 
surance against  death,  or  wholly  disabling  injury  by  accident,  to 
men  of  all  trades  and  occupations,  at  rates  within  the  reach  of  all. 

A  general  accident  policy  provides  a  fixed  sum,  from  $1,000 
to  $10,000,  in  case  of  a  fatal  accident,  or  a  w^eekly  indemnity 
for  loss  of  time,  from  $5.00  to  $50.00  per  week  in  case  of  total 
disability  by  accident,  not  exceeding  twenty-six  weeks  for  any 
one  injury.  For  a  merchant,  banker  or  professional  man,  a 
policy  insuring  $5,000  in  case  of  fatal  accident,  or  $25.00  a  week 
for  wholly  disabling  injury,  costs  but  $25.00  per  year.  Cost  of 
policies  are  governed  by  the  risks  attending  the  occupation  en- 
gaged in.  The  ability  of  this  company  to  make  good  its  losses 
is  attested  by  their  assets  of  undoubted  character,  w^hich  reach 
over  $4,000,000.  H.  W.  Power  is  State  Agent,  corner  Sixth 
and  Locust  streets. 


COAL  AND  COKE.  347 

CARBONDALE  COAL  AND  COKE  COMPANY. 

The  importance  of  a  pure  fuel  in  the  manufacture  of  iron 
is  so  evident  a  fact  that  we  need  not  discuss  it.  The  iron  in- 
dustries are  among  the  most  important  of  all  the  manufactur- 
ing interests  of  St.  Louis,  and  hence  the  value  of  a  pure  and 
reliable  fuel  for  the  furnaces  and  foundries  of  the  city.  The 
failures  resulting  from  attempts  to  use  the  sulj)hurous  and 
impure  coal  taken  from  mines  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city,  cre- 
ated an  opinion  amounting  to  a  conviction  in  the  minds  of 
many  that  the  Western  States  afforded  no  good  coal  for  mak- 
ing coke.  This  opinion  became  so  firmly  fixed  that  even  de- 
monstration has  not  entirely  removed  it. 

Some  men,  who  afterwards  become  celebrated  as  benefac- 
tors of  their  kind,  pass  along  the  even  tenor  of  their  ways  for 
years  before  their  beneficence  and  work  are  properly  under- 
stood and  appreciated.  So  it  has  been  in  the  case  of  Mr. 
Andrew  C.  Bryden,  the  explorer  and  proprietor,  who  first  de- 
veloped the  celebrated  mines  of  the  Carbondale  Coal  and  Coke 
Company,  at  Cartersville,  Williamson  County,  Illinois. 

It  required  no  little  nerve  to  undertake  the  work  which 
has  been  so  successfully  carried  forward  by  Mr.  Bryden  and 
his  associates.  But  the  success  achieved  has  demonstrated 
the  fact  that  within  a  convenient  distance  from  St.  Louis 
there  is  a  splendid  deposit  of  as  good  fuel,  coking  and  gas 
coal  as  exists  under  the  hills  of  Western  Pennsylvania.  The 
field  embraces  something  like  two  thousand  acres  of  land, 
and  this  is  all  owned  and  subject  to  the  control  of  the  Carbon- 
dale  Coal  and  Coke  Company. 

As  to  the  quality  of  the  coal  for  common  furnace  and 
steam-making  purposes,  there  is  abundant  demonstrations 
that  it  is  not  excelled  by  any  bituminous  coals  mined  in  this 
country,  if  any  where. 

That  it  is  an  excellent  coking  coal  is  no  longer  a  theory, 
but  an  established  fact,  which  can  not  be  overthrown.  Analy- 
ses show  this  coal  to  be  remarkably  free  from  the  presence  of 
sulphur  and  other  injurious  substances.  The  use  of  coke 
made  from  this  coal  in  the  Grand  Tower  furnaces  proved  it 
equal  to  any  that  could  be  obtained  in  this  country. 


348  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  coal  from  these  mines  has  been  analyzed  by  Profess- 
ors Potter  and  Riggs  of  Washington  University,  to  test  its  gas- 
producing  capability  These  gentlemen  say:  "It  is  evi- 
dent that  the  Bryden  coal  is  superior  to  any  other  coal  from 
Illinois  or  Missouri  for  the  manufacture  of  illuminating  gas,  in 
regard  to  the  amount  of  gas  and  sulphur  in  the  gas,  and  also 
'quality  and  quantity  of  coke  produced."  Professor  Ware,  in 
his  report,  says  :  "It  has  no  contemporary,  nor  is  there  any 
exposure  of  coal  in  the  Middle  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  that 
compares  with  it." 

But  it  is  the  great  purity  and  excellent  coking  qualities  of 
the  coal  which  places  the  Bryden  coal,  from  the  mines  of  the 
Carbondale  Coal  and  Coke  Company,  before  any  other  coal 
from  the  region  adjacent  to  St.  Louis.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  property  of  the  company  contains  the  enormous  amount 
of  17,500,000  tons  of  this  excellent  fuel. 

Extensive  coke  works  have  already  been  erected  at  the 
mines,  and  have  for  sometime  been  yielding  a  large  amount  of 
coke,  which  finds  a  market  in  this  city,  in  Arkansas,  in  Texas, 
Kansas,  and  Indiana.  The  quality  of  the  coal,  and  accessibil- 
ity of  these  mines  and  Avorks  together,  will  ere  long  compel 
all  other  cokes  to  be  withdrawn  from  this  market.  The  direc- 
tory of  the  company  are  Messrs.  Samuel  M.  Dodd,  Edwin 
Harrison,  Sylvester  H.  Lafiin,  John  B.  Maude,  James  G. 
Brown,  and  Andrew  C.  Bryden,  President.  The  coal  field — 
which  is  the  highest  of  all  the  coal  measures  of  the  West — was 
explored  by  Mr.  Andrew  C.  Bryden,  who  has  given  the  closest 
and  most  thoughtful  attention  to  the  work  of  developing  one 
of  the  most  valuable  mining  properties  in  the  West.  The 
prosperity  of  the  company  has  been  steady  and  satisfactory. 
The  demand  for  the  products  of  their  mines  and  coke  ovens 
continues  to  increase  with  eveiy  day.  It  speaks  well  for 
the  president  of  the  company,  well  for  his  practical  mind 
and  business  ability,  when  a  corporation  with  only  a  limited 
working  capital  invested  has  grown  in  a  few  years  to  be  one 
of  the  most  important,  and  financially  one  of  the  soundest, 
corporations  in  the  West.  It  is  safe  to  predict  that  in  a  time 
not  distant  in  the  future,  this  company  will  exert  a  controling 
influence  on  the  markets  of  the  West. 


JOB    PRINTING. 


349 


GLOBE-DEMOCRAT  JOB  PRINTING  COMPANY. 


Located  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Fourth  and  Pine  streets, 
is  one  of  the  oldest  printing  establishments  in  the  city. 
Its  earliest  beginnings  run  l)ack  to  the  time  when  McKee  & 
Fishbaek  made  their  job  office  an  appendix  to  the  Missouri 
Democrat.  Since  then  it  has  occasionally  changed  owner- 
ship. In  December,  1877,  it  was  incorporated  under  its 
present  title,  and  the  facilities  increased  to  their  present  ex- 
tensive proportions. 

The  company  employ  some  sixty  men,  who  are  known  to 
be  experts  in  their  busi- 
ness. Indeed,  none  other 
than  first-class  hands  are 
retained  in  their  employ. 
The  business  of  the  com- 
pany is  to  turn  out  the 
best  of  workmanship  in 
every  branch  of  printing. 
Its  immense  facilities  en- 
able it  to  meet  the  wants 
of  its  patrons  in  commer- 
cial, legal,  or  railroad 
printing,  in  every  case 
where  rapidity  in  execu- 
tion is  essential,  and  in 
this  feature  it  is  not  excelled  by  any  establishment  in  the 
West.  College  and  business  catalogues,  with  every  variety  of 
the  incidental  printing  required  in  conducting  any  successful 
business,  receive  special  attention,  and  in  theatrical  and 
mammoth  shov,^  printing  it  has  no  rival  in  St.  Louis.  Book 
binding  in  all  its  branches  promptly  and  satisfactorily  exe- 
cuted. In  short,  the  company  is  prepared  to  execute 
orders,  to  any  extent,  for  anything  in  the  line  of  newspaper, 
book  and  job  printing.  The  patrons  of  this  establishment  are 
not  entirely  within  the  limits  of  St.  Louis,  or  its  immediate 
vicinity,  but  extend  through  all  the  States  and  Territories  of 
the   great    Southwest. 


Orders   by    mail    comprise   a   large 


350  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

portion  of  their  business,  and  are  executed  with  taste  and 
dispatch. 

Bradford  Allen,  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  is  the  son  of 
Hon.  Thomas  Allen,  and  is  a  young  business  man  of  energy 
and  perseverance,  and  skillfully  manages  the  finances,  with 
scrupulous  care  for  the  interest  of  all  concerned. 

Frank  Swick,  Superintendent,  conducts  the  practical 
workings  of  the  company.  Thirty  years  of  practical  experience 
in  every  branch  of  the  business,  eminently  fits  him  for  his 
position.  He  is  known  here  to  our  business  men  as  an  adept 
in  printing.  His  taste,  judgment  and  agreeable  manners  ren- 
der him  a  pleasant  official,  whose  influence  for  the  company 
cannot  but  tend  to  the  promotion  of  its  business. 

A.  P.  Barnes,  the  efficient  foreman,  is  well  fitted  by  his 
large  experience  as  a  practical  printer  for  the  important  posi- 
tion he  holds. 


J.  STOKES. — Elegant  Millinery. 

This  establishment,  located  at  No.  405  North  Fourth 
Street,  has  made  a  handsome  record  for  steady  and  healthy 
growth.  Mr.  Stokes  has  not  been  behind  any  of  his  competi- 
tors for  the  freshness  of  styles  in  this  line.  His  stock  is  ample 
for  the  supply  of  a  large  jobbing  trade  he  has  gradually  worked 
up  from  small  beginnings,  to  say  nothing  of  the  infinite  variety 
he  constantly  keeps  to  meet  the  wants  of  a  very  select  retail 
trade. 

The  activity  of  his  business,  his  thorough  knowledge  of 
what  is  wanted,  and  his  determination  to  keep  his  stock  con- 
stantly replenished,  has  given  the  establishment  a  large  place 
in  public  esteem.  Bridal  outfits  are  a  specialty  and  may  be 
procured  here  as  elaborately  as  in  New  York  or  Paris. 


HOT  SPRINGS. 


A  reference  to  Hot  Springs,  Arkansas,  in  this  work  mio-ht, 
at  the  first  conclusion,  appear  inappropriate  and  out  of  place, 
but  upon  second  thought  its  relevancy  will  be  plainly  indiokted. 
By  rail  Hot  Springs  is  about  four  hundred  miles  from  St. 
Louis,  but  the  fact  that  this  great  invalid  resort  can  only  be 
reached  from  the  North,  comfortably  and  expeditiously,  by 
way  of  the  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern,  eminently  a 
St.  Louis  railroad,  the  Springs  at  once  become  a  well  defined 
adjunct  to  our  city.  In  addition  to  this  rail  connection,  the 
inhabitants  rely  exclusively  upon  St.  Louis  for  everything  they 
«at  and  wear,  and  in  the  matter  of  distillations,  everythino- 
they  drink,  making  the  dependency  so  complete  that  Hot 
Springs  may  well  be  denominated  a  sympathetic  suburb  of  our 
city,  or  a  St.  Louis  child  by  adoption.  So  many  of  our  citi- 
zens are  found  at  the  Springs  during  all  seasons  of  the  year, 
that  every  St.  Louisan  upon  striking  the  place  feels  that  he  has 
only  left  the  brick  and  granite  of  the  city  for  the  country  resi- 
dences of  his  neighbors  and  acquaintances. 

Hot  Springs  city  is  peculiar  in  more  respects  than  one  ;  it 
is  situated  in  the  most  rugged  glen  of  the  Ozark  range,  way 
down  the  gorge,  hemmed  in  by  bold  promontories  and  jagged 
ledges  of  tufa  rock  upon  which,  strange  to  say,  grow  a  luxu- 
riant forest.  But  it  nestles  in  the  narrow  valley  like  a  bird  in 
incubation,  and  dozes  under  the  soothing  lullaby  of  the  purling 
brooklet  which  laves  its  principal  street,  and  in  the  lazy  sum- 
mer time  is  as  sleepy  and  inactive  as  the  old  village  of  Bruges. 
The  route  hence  to  the  Springs  is  one  affording  the  keenest 
enjoyment,  as  the  trip  over  the  Iron  Mountain  Kail  way  carries 
the  passenger  through  some  of  the  wildest  scenery  on  the  con- 
tinent, crossing  the  Arkansas,  White,  Black  and  Ouachita  rivers, 

[351] 


352 


HOT    SPKINGS. 


and  plunging  into  depths  where  the  vegetation  in  the  summer 
time  is  so  rank  and  dense  as  to  ahnost  shut  out  the  noon-day 
light  and  make  the  scene  one  of  awsome  grandeur.     But  the 

scene  varies 
into  pleasing 
transforma- 
tions, as  the 
road  leaps 
from  valley  to 
hill-top,  from 
mountain 
side  to  the 
vale  which 
spreads  out  in 
delightful 
p  an  Oram  a, 
and  then 
fades  into 
sombre  shad- 
ows as  the 
forest  depths 

HOT  SPRINGS  CKEEK— Running  Throusjli  the  Town.  ^  ao^ain 

penetrated.  On  the  following  morning  out  from  St.  Louis  the 
train  reaches  Malvern,  a  little  village  which  forms  a  junction 
with  Diamond  Joe's  Narrow  Gauge  Railroad,  twenty-two  miles 
in  length,  being  the  distance  from  Malvern  to  Hot  Springs. 
This  road  is  well  equipped  and  runs  through  a  section  of  coun- 
try well  adapted  for  raising  seed-ticks  and  chigres,  but  nothing 
else.  There  are  only  two  oi-three  stopping  places  on  the  nar- 
row gauge,  but  why  there  are  any  is  a  conundrum  worthy  of 
scientific  solution.  The  primeval  condition  of  the  few  hillside 
inhabitants,  and  the  backwoods  character  of  the  entire  sur- 
roundings, only  serve  to  intensify  the  interest  excited  by  the 
trip,  and  the  passenger  seems  to  experience  what  he  only  an- 
ticipates in  reading  Mark  Twain's  "Roughing  It." 

Upon  arriving  at  the  Springs  the  visitor  finds  that  he  has 
at  last  struck  an  oasis,  for  he  is  immediately  besieged  by  hotel 
drummers,  hackmen,  and  physicians'  professional  solicitors. 
But   the  wise  man,  unless  he    has  other  divers  and  sundry 


HOT   SPRINGS. 


353 


reasons  therefor,  will  take  the  street  oar  which  he  finds  in  wait- 
ing and  get  up  into  the  city  at  the  modest  cost  of  five  cents, 
thereby  aceonii)lithing  a  saving  of  forty-five  cents— quite  an 
important  item  to  many  whr)  visit  the  Springs  under  pressing 
circumstances.  The  acme  of  civilization,  however,  is  not 
reached  until  the  cemetery  is  passed — the  graveyard  is  one  of 
the  first  objects  to  greet  the  visitor's  eyes  after  leaving  tlie 
railroad  depot  for  the  accommodations  of  the  city  ;  then  "there 
looms  up  a 
provisional 
settlement  of 
small  frame 
houses,  the 
more  sub- 
stantial buil- 
dings being 
located  in  the 
northern  pi'/rt 
of  the  valley, 
the  best  part 
of  the  city 
being  shown 
in  the  engrav- 
ing, looking 
south. 

The  jour- 
ney complet- 
ed, the  visitor  is  confronted  by  a  variety  of  curiosities  which 
claim  his  attention,  and  if  he  is  hearty,  strong  and  vigorous, 
the  first  days'  travel  over  the  deposit  mountain  on  the  east 
side  of  town  will  give  him  results  which  strongly  appeal  to  the 
magical  waters  for  relief. 

The  first  object  which  attracts  attention  particularly, 
is  a  group  of  gentlemen  and  ladies  under  an  ornnmcntal 
I)agoda,  at  the  south  end  of  the  Arlington  Hotel,  drinking 
by  turn  from  a  long-handled  dipper.  This  is  Arsenic  Sjiring, 
the  waters  of  which  come  boiling  up  from  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  at  a  temperature  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  degrees. 
Hot  as  it  is,  the  water  is  drank  without  creating  any  nausea, 

S3 


Uri'EIl   END  OF   HOT   Sl'UINGS. 


354 


HOT    SPRINGS. 


neither  does  it  burn  the  mouth.  AVhy  the  term  arsenic  is 
applied  to  the  spring  is  not  patent,  for  the  water  does  not 
contain  a  sinole  trace  of  that  mineral. 

Clambering 
up  the  hill- 
side, over  the 
raofo'cd  cdircs 

CO  o 

ofprotruding 
stones,  the 
visitor,  when 
half  way  up, 
hnds  his  curi- 
osity, sym- 
pathy, senti- 
m  cut  a  nd 
general  char- 
actcristics 
suddenly 
quickened  by 
contact  with 
"RalHole." 
The  reader  is 

here  in  need  of  light,  for  those  who  are  unacquainted  with 
Hot  Springs  have  not  the  remotest  conception  of  what  the 
word"Ral"  means.  The  following  explanation  is  therefore 
not  only  pertinent,  but  important,  and  indeed  necessary.  For 
several  j^ears  it  was  the  custom  of  those  who  visited  the 
Springs  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  relief  from  nameless 
chronic  diseases  to  designate  their  ill  as  neuralgia.  On  one 
occasion,  while  a  gentleman  was  bathing  in  the  "Hole,"  ho 
was  asked  by  a  neighbor  the  nature  of  his  disease.  The  reply 
was  as  usual,  neuralgia,  to  which  the  interlocutor  responded 
in  a  tone  significant  of  supreme  disgust:  "That's  what 
tJiey've  all  got,  but  mine  has  run  into  'Old  Eal.' "  From 
that  day  the  spring  has  been  known  as  "Old  Ral,"  or  gen- 
erally "Ral  Hole."  It  is  covered  by  a  little  rickety  shed, 
about  ten  feet  square ;  the  spring  is  eight  inches  deep  and 
nearly  fifteen  feet  in  circumference.  At  all  times  of  the  day 
this  spot  is  thronged  by  the  afflicted,  some  of  whom  have  the 


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THE  MISNOMERED  AU^EMC  SPRING. 


HOT    SPRINGS. 


355 


most  distressing  appearance,  with  nlecrations  on  the  face  and 
limbs,  which  ahnost  sicken  a  well  person.  But  they  are  all 
recovering,  and  the  evidences  of  marvelous  cures  cumulate  so 
rapidly  that  the  visitor  is  forced  to  say  :  "Verily,  the  good 
an2;el  hath  troubled  the  waters  that  the  hcalino;  miracles  may 
notecase." 

The  water,  nearly  all  of  which  is  of  the  same  temperature 
and  quantitative  analj^sis,  is  bubl)ling  up  from  numerous  places 
on  the  hillsides,  but  at  every  spot  there  is  some  arrangement 
for  drawing  it  off  and  conveying  it  to  places  desired,  generally 
into  the  several"  bathing  establishments  of  the  city. 

Two  hun- 
dred yards 
south  of  "Ral 
Hole"  is  an- 
other spring 
covered  in 
the  same 
manner  and 
having  the 
same  charac- 
teristics, it 
being  known 
among  visi- 
tors as  "Mud 
Hole,"  an- 
other misno- 
mer, for  the 
spring  is 
.clear  and  the 

water  is  possessed  of  virtues  equally  potent  as  "Ral  Hole." 
This  place  from  before  daylight  in  the  morning  until  noon  is 
reserved  for  women,  hundreds  of  whom  may  be  found  at  the 
Sprinn-s  during  nearly  all  seasons  of  the  year,  bathing  daily, 
to  rid  themselves  of  loathsome  diseases.  These  two  springs 
are  patronized  almost  exclusively  by  the  poor,  who  reach  the 
place  by  the  use  of  many  expedients.  Some  Avalk  from  their 
homes,  hundreds  of  miles  distant ;  others  come  in  little  carts, 
while  yet  others  steal  rides  on  the  railroad  and  beg  the  necessary 


CONDUlTd  ton  THE  MAGICAL  WATEU6. 


356 


HOT   SPRINGS. 


THE  KNCAilPMENT. 


victuals  on 
the  way.  Up- 
on their  arri- 
val they  man- 
age in  some 
way  to  keep 
the  breath  in 
their  bodies 
while  they 
undergo  a 
months  treat- 
ment of  bath- 
inganddrink- 
ingthewater. 
The  top  of  the 
hill,  or  moun- 
tain as  it  is 
called,  is  of- 
tentimes capped  with  the  bivouac  of  diseased  and  inn^)ecuni- 
ous  strangers  who  spend  the  time  of  their  stay  as  pleasantly 
as  tent  life  can  bo  made. 

The  weal- 
thy patients 
who  visit  Hot 
Springs  take 
their  baths 
either  in  the 
hotels  or  at 
the  popular 
bathing  es- 
tablishment 
known  as  the 
Big  Iron  Bath 
House,  a  tiu- 
ly  magnifi- 
cent institu- 
tion, with  the 
most  com- 
prehensive 2'IIE  BIG  IKON  SFlilNG.— Site  of  Big  Iron  Bath-House. 


HOT    SPRINGS 


357 


arrangement  for  giving  baths  in  the  most  comfortable  and 
effective  manner.  It  is  built  over  the  Big  Iron  Spring,  the 
largest  and  most  powerful  in  the  valley. 

In  Hot  Springs  and  vicinity  there  arc  fifty-seven  springs, 
or,  more  proi)crly  speaking,  that  number  of  places  where  the 
•water  issues  from  the  surface,  as  the  identity  of  the  several 
springs  give  good  grounds  for  the  belief  that  they  all  have  their 
origin  in  one  great  basin  of  mineral  water  which  is  divided  by 
the  interposition  of  stones  or  the  petrified  deposits.  The  tem- 
perature ranges  from  ninety  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-three 
degrees,  the  cause 
of  which  is  attrib- 
uted to  the  dis- 
tance and  depth 
the  water  flows  be- 
fore reaching  the 
s  u  r  f  a  c  e .  T  h  e 
amount  of  water 
discharged  daily  is 
estimated  at  five 
hundred  thousand 
gallons,  quite 
enough  for  the 
w'ants  of  all  the 
invalids  in  Amer- 
ica. 

One  of  the  cu- 
riosities which  at- 
tracts many  visi- 
tors and  creates  no  little  wonder,  is  the  celebrated  hot  and 
cold  springs.  The  waters  of  these  two  basins  are  separated 
by  a  partition  of  earth  only  two  feet  broad,  and  yet  the  tem- 
perature of  one  is  one  hundred  and  h'fty  while  that  of  the 
other  is  only  thirty  degrees.  One  will  boil  an  egg  in  a  few 
minutes  while  from  the  other  nice  cool  drinking  water  is  ol)- 
tained. 

These  marvellous  springs  are  not  confined  to  Hot  Springs, 
but  to  a  district  of  country  twelve  miles  square.  Hot  Si)ring3 
being  the  eastern  limit  and  the  Mountain  Valley  Spring  the 


HOT  AND  COLD  SPIUNGS. 


358 


HOT    SPRINGS. 


CHALYBEATE  SPRINGS. 


limit  on  the 
north.  The 
Chalybeate 
Springs  three 
miles  from 
Hot  Sprmgs^ 
have  become 
quite  noted, 
and  as  they 
are  readily 
accessible 
many  per- 
sons visit 
tlicm  during 
the  s  p  ring 
and  fall  sea- 
sons. 

The  Sul- 
phur Springs,  eight  miles  from  the  city,  are  also  fast  gaining 
popularity.  They  are  reached  by  a  well-made  road,  and  all 
the  accommodations  for  the  comfort  of  visitors  are  provided. 
A  hotel  has 
been  recently 
built  at  the 
Springs,  and 
arranirement 
isbeinsrmade 
to  run  a  'bus 
line  between 
Hot  Springs 
and  that 
point. 

The  cura- 
tive virtues  of 
the  great 
thermal  wa- 
ters of  the 
Hot  Springs 
valley  cannot  suli'huk  spiungs. 


HOT   SPRINGS. 


359 


be  exaggerated.     There  can  be  neither  questioning  nor  clonl)t 
concerning  their  etficacy  in  eradicating  a  majority  of  the  dis- 
eases peculiar  to  this  country.     Tlie  climate  is  most  salubrious, 
and  the  surroundings,  from  their  primeval  appearance,  exert 
a  most  wholesome  and  invigorating  effect  upon  patients.     The 
diseases  for  the  cure  of  Avhich  the  Springs  are  specially  recom- 
mended are  rheumatism,  catarrh,  scrofula,  the  Avorst  cases  of 
syphilis,  gout,  paralysis,  female  troubles,  including  sterility, 
gravel,  ulceration,  asthma,  neuralgia,  and  all  cutaneous  dis- 
eases.    Ill  f\ict,   nearly  every  ill  except  that  arising  from  dis- 
eased lungs.     In  addition  to  curing  these  ailments,  tlie  Springs 
are  marvelously  efficacious  in  purging  the  system  of  alcohol 
and  opium,  and  destroying  the  most  craving  appetite  for  these 
curses.     Bathing  in  the  springs  will  also  restore  the  bloom  of 
youth  to  the   cheeks  of  the  aged,  and  thousands  of  ladies  visit 
the  place  only  to  regain  their  maiden  freshness. 

Hot  Springs  is  famous  for  its  hotel  accommodations,  and 
while     there 
are  no  public 
e  n  t  e  1"  t  a  i  n  - 
ments  in  the 
city  there  are 
improvised 
theatricals 
almost  night- 
ly at  the  Ar- 
lington    and 
Grand    Cen- 
tral.       Xot- 
withstandiuii' 
the  fact  that 
Hot  Springs, 
and,  indeed, 
Garland  Co., 
is  in  the  midst 

of     a     most  BUSINESS  POUriON  OF  HOT  SPRINGS. 

rugged  and  stony  country,  yet  there  is  a  large  trade  in  cotton 
and  groceries,  and  sales  are  made  by  Hot  Springs  merchants 
to  country  dealers  as  far  away  as  Indian  Territory. 


360  HOT    SPRINGS. 

M.  C.  O' Bryan  is  the  largest  merchant  in  the  phice,  and  his 
country  business  is  enormous.  He  carries  a  general  country 
store  stock,  which  nicludes  everything,  and  also  deals  largely 
in  cotton.  Mike,  as  he  is  familiarly  called,  is  popular  among 
all  classes  in  that  section,  and  in  addition  to  a  good  stock  of 
popularity,  he  is  rich. 

Thirty  miles  distant  from  Hot  Springs  is  Crystal  Moun- 
tain, where  are  found  the  most  beautiful  and  perfect  crj'stali- 
zations  on  the  continent.  Thousands  of  these  beautiful  speci- 
mens arc  constantly  exposed  for  sale  in  Hot  Springs,  also 
agates,  porphyries,  and  Hot  Springs  diamonds.  J.  M.  Blake, 
a  skillful  jeweler  and  lapidarian,  has  devoted  much  of  his  at- 
tention to  cutting  these  exquisite  gems,  in  which  he  h:is  de- 
veloped a  coilsiderable  trade.  He  works  the  stones  into  hand- 
some jewelry,  which  are  not  only  valuable  souvenirs  for 
visitors,  but  are  very  unique  and  beautiful  ornaments. 

The  litigation  Avith  the  Government  over  the  grounds  on 
which  Hot  Springs  is  located,  has  been  productive  of  great 
evil  to  the  city,  preventing  the  construction  of  substantial 
buildings,  and  leaving  those  who  are  doing  business  in  the 
place  in  an  unsettled  and  treacherous  condition.  The  inhabi- 
tants, however,  are  hospitable  and  enterprising,  and  with  a 
settlement  of  their  land  troubles  will  soon  build  up  Hot 
Springs  and  make  of  her  the  largest  city  in  the  Southwest,  in 
keeping  with  the  virtue  of  her  thermal  waters,  which  are  the 
most  efficacious  found  on  either  hemisphere. 


HOT   SPRINGS.  361 

THE   AKLINGTON   HOTEL. 

\Yhile  Hot  Springs  is  only  a  town  in  point  of  population, 
it  possesses  many  metropolitan  characteristics,  and,  indeed, 
distinguished  attributes,  chief  among  which  is  the  grand, 
sumptuous  Arlington  Hotel,  the  largest  and  finest  home 
de  resort  in  the  State  of  Arkansas.  But  this  qualification  of 
its  excellence  is  only  comparative,  and  a  proper  idea  r)f  its 
comforts  and  elegance  can  only  be  obtained  by  a  description 
or  personal  inspection. 

The  Arlington  was  completed  and  opened  for  the  reception 
of  guests  on  the  first  of  April,  1875,  by  Messrs.  S.  H.  Stitt 
&  Co.,  at  a  cost  of  eighty  thousand  dollars.  The  building- 
is  three  stories  in  height,  with  a  frontage  of  one  hundred 
and  ninety  feet.  It  has  two  wings,  one  of  which  is  one 
hundred  and  eighty  and  the  other  one  hundred  feet  in 
length,  with  a  grand  court  between  ;  the  entire  area  occupied 
is  twenty-six  thousand  six  hundred  square  feet.  There  are 
wide,  graceful  porches  extending  along  the  first  and  second 
front  floors,  on  which  guests  can  enjoy  the  cool  breezes  which 
sweep  down  the  valleys  and  play  soothing  lullabys  with  the 
rich  foliage  of  the  large  trees  which  canopy  the  hotel.  The 
wings  run  back  to  the  brink  of  the  precipitous  hill  in  the  rear, 
rendering  escape  from  the  three  floors  of  the  house,  in  case  of 
fire,  as  easy  as  from  a  basement.  The  hallways  are  all  broad, 
and  the  ventilation  made  with  special  regard  to  comfort, 
allowing  a  free  draft  of  air  through  every  room.  The  liouse 
is  supplied  with  an  electric  annunciator,  which  communicates 
with  all  the  rooms,  and  has  gas  of  its  own  manufacture 
throughout  the  house.  The  east  wing  of  the  hotel  is  built 
over  a  large  spring,  which  supplies  the  bathing  department  t)f 
the  house  with  the  most  potent  of  the  curative  waters  which 
make  Hot  Springs  the  famous  resort  that  it  is,  and  every 
needful  auxiliary  is  provided  for  giving  the  douche,  tub  and 
vapor  baths  in  the  most  comfortable  and  effective  maimer. 
The  table  d'hote  can  not  be  excelled,  and  the  house  under  t  \\v  able 
management  of  Messrs.  Stitt  &  Co.  is  fast  becoming,  Mith  the 
sprinijs,  the  aristocratic  resort  of  America.  The  accommoda- 
tion for  invalids  is  of  the  most  complete  character,  there  l)eing 


HOT    SPRINGS. 


3()3 


added  to  the  luxurious  comforts  of  Iho  house  a  cheerful  and 
cxhilaratins:  tone  M'hich  makes  the  suflerer  fori^ct  his  ills  in 
the  enjoyment  of  the  beauty  and  (^uiet  grace  of  his  surround- 
ings. 

THE   GRAND   CENTRAL. 


The  visitor  to 
Hot  Springs,  af- 
ter passing  thro' 
so  much  of  a 
country  thinly 
settled,  and   see- 

'^'l/r  ^'^^  ^^^^  v\n\o,  pro- 
visions of  a  pio- 
neer existence,  in 
stopping  at  the 
Grand  Central 
feels  like  the 
jaded  traveler  of  a  desert,  who  suddenly  comes -upon  an  oasis 
rich  with  enjoyable  auxiliaries  of  a  perfect"  civilization.  The 
name  of  the  house  strikes  him  as  being  singularly  appropriate, 
for  it  is  grand  in  its  exterior  ornamentation  and  central  in  its 
location  to  the  health-imparting  waters  of  the  springs.  The 
hotel  is  fifty  feet  in  width,  two  stories  in  height,-  and  two 
hmidred  and  sixty  feet  in  length. 

True  to  the  Southern  instincts  of  positive  comfort,  the 
house  has  porches  on  each  floor,  which  extend  along  the  end 
and  side  of  the  building,  and  afford  a  cool  and  beautiful  re- 
treat from  the  sunnner  sun,  and  a  grand  promenade  for  its 
numerous  guests. 

The  Grand  Central  has  fifty-tAvo  elegant  rooms,  A\ith  ac- 
commodations for  one  hundred  guests,  and  is  supplied  with 
twelve  commodious  bath-tubs,  built  immediately  aliove  a 
spring,  the  water  of  which,  impregnated  with  iron  and  magne- 
sia, are  among  the  most  healthful  and  curative  in  the  valley. 
The  house  was  built  in  1874,  and  combines  every  modern  im- 
provement found  in  the  iinest  caravansaries  of  the  East,  in- 
cluding electric  bells,  gas,  bath-room,  barber  shop,  reading- 


3G4 


HOT    SPIIINGS. 


room,  bar,  etc.  ;  being  so  complete  that  the  invalid  need  never 
2:0  out  of  the  house  for  either  recreation  or  any  of  the  com- 
forts requisite  or  peculiar  to  American  taste. 

Mr.  D.  Ballentinc,  the  proprietor,  is  a  gentleman  of  such 
a  truly  hospitable  disposition  as  to  esi^ecially  adapt  him  to  the 
hotel  business,  and  his  popularity  with  his  guests  has  become 
proverbial  in  the  valley.  John  R.  Buchanan,  the  chief  clerk, 
is  well  known  and  of  such  agreeable  manners  as  to  win  for  him 
a  miost  deserved,  kindly  recognition  from  all  who  visit  the 
hotel. 

The  dining-room  of  the  Grand  Central  is  one  of  the  best- 
appointed  in  the  State,  being  large  and  airy,  Avhile  the  tables 
are  provisioned  Avith  the  most  elegant  products  of  epicurean 
excellence,  and  ever}^  attention,  comporting  with  prime  com- 
fort and  pleasurable  considerations,  is  paid  to  guests.  The 
house  is  in  every  respect  strictly  first-class,  and  its  patronage 
includes  the  best  and  wealthiest  peonle  of  America. 

wavp:rly  hotel. 


Situated  in  the 
upper  end  of  the 
Hot  Springs  Val- 
ley, at  an  elevation 
above  the  sluggish 
malarial  poisons, 
which  prevail  in 
the  lower  portion 
of  the  town,  is  the 
Waverly  Hotel,  one 
of  the  most  com- 
fortable and  truly 
home -like  houses 
in  the  State.  The  Waverly  was  built  by  G.  A.  Menninger, 
Esq.,  in  1872,  and  leased  to  L.  D.  Cain  directly  after  the 
fire,  which  destro^^ed  a  large  portion  of  the  town  in  March 
of  the  present  year.  Mr.  Cain  is  a  representative  hotel  gen- 
tleman, and  has  made  the  Waverly  one  of  the  first  hotels  in 
the  valley,  having  furnished  it  sumptuously  and  conducted  it 


HOT    SPRINGS.  365 

in  such  manner  as  to  popularize  both  the  house  and  himself 
with  the  public. 

The  Waverl}^  as  will  be  seen  by  the  accompanying  illus- 
tration, is  a  beautiful  building,  nestled  under  the  protecting 
shades  of  line  trees  ;  having  broad  verandahs,  which  are  made 
cool  by  the  never-ceasing  winds  which  play  about  the  house. 
There  is  a  large  yard  on  the  south  for  croquet  playing,  in  the 
center  of  which  is  a  handsome  fountain  sporting  the  curative 
waters  in  tireless  flow.  The  hotel  has  accommodations  for 
sixty  people  ;  is  supplied  with  all  the  modern  improvements, 
and  the  street  cars  pass  its  doors  to  and  from  the  depot.  A 
magniiicent  bath-house,  the  largest  in  the  valley,  with  twenty 
tubs,  has  just  been  completed,  in  connection  with  the  house, 
and  everjiihing  needful  for  the  proper  attention  to  invalids  is 
provided.  The  rates  are  very  low,  being  $3  per  day  for  tran- 
sient, and  from  $12.50  to  $17.50  per  week  for  regular  guests, 
while  the  accommodations  offered  are  not  exceeded  by  any 
hotel  in  Hot  Springs. 

THE  BIG  IRON   BATH-HOUSE. 

Nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  Bethcsda's  Pool  and 
*♦  Siloam's  Brook,  which  flowed  fast  by  the  oracle  of  God," 
upon  whose  banks  lingered  the  foot-prints  of  angels,  and 
above  which  theoraculous  aurealus  shone  to  guide  the  diseased 
to  the  magical  waters  for  purification  and  cure,  were  exciting 
the  oriental  world  and  spreading  the  fame  of  a  new  gospel 
dispensation. 

But  even  unto  this  day  the  savory  virtues  of  those  histori- 
cal Avaters  are  as  potent  as  when  Jesus  came  hy  the  famous 
pool  and  healed  those  who  had  been  waiting  so  long  for  the 
troubling  of  the  stream.  Yet  the  cures  they  performed  exist 
now  only  in  Biblical  tradition,  which  grows  stronger  as  the 
date  of  miracles  becomes  more  remote.  To  tell  a  stranger 
that  the  Hot  Springs  of  Arkansas  are  daily  accomplishing 
cures  as  remarkable  as  those  performed  by  bathing  in  Bethesda 
nineteen  centuries  ago,  is  to  write  the  relator  down  a  Mun- 
chausen, in  Avhom  the  spirit  of  truth  never  found  a  foothold, 
and  to  chronicle  the  facts  is  at  the  risk  of  profaning  history. 


HOT    SPRINGS.  367 

Such  is  the  difference  between  facts  as  they  exist  and  tradi- 
tions built  upon  the  fabric  of  a  pk'asiii<j:  imagery. 

If  the  evidences  were  not  as  numerous  as  the  trees  of  tlie 
forests  and  as  impregnable  as  the  roots  which  bind  the  strong- 
est oak,  it  would  be  useless  to  speak  the  truth  concerning  the 
marvelous  cures  wrought  by  the  hot  springs,  and  to  detail  the 
inestimable  blessings  of  the  water  when  applied  to  invalids  as 
a  bath  in  the  one  great  establishment  of  the  valley,  the  Big 
Iron  Bath-house.  This  most  meritorious  institution  is  one 
of  the  recent  acquisitions  to  the  Springs,  and  one,  the  impor- 
tance of  which  can  not  be  overestimated,  not  to  Hot  Springs, 
but  to  the  world,  in  every  clime  where  disease,  like  an  insidious 
enemy,  insinuates  its  impairing  and  destructive  influence  to 
wreck  and  destroy  life. 

All  the  waters  of  the  celebrated  Hot  Springs  possess  val- 
uable curative  properties,  but,  like  any  medicine,  requires 
proper  administration.  An  exposure  soon  assimilates  and 
destroys  the  medicinal  virtues  of  the  water,  and  while  it  is 
important  to  use  it  fresh,  just  as  it  gushes  from  out  the  rock- 
ribbed  mountain,  steaming  in  its  escape  from  nature's  labora- 
tory, and  eager  for  immediate  application,  it  is  also  important 
to  know  how  to  administer  the  bath.  Many  persons,  in  years 
gone  by,  have  visited  the  Springs  without  beneiicial  results, 
and  have  thereafter  believed  the  stories  concerning  the  reme- 
dial agency  of  the  water  as  only  skillfully  devised  fables  ;  but 
in  every  instance  of  this  character  the  result  has  been  duo 
entirely  to  the  manner  in  which  the  baths  were  taken.  The 
lack  of  proper  facilities  Avas  a  serious  drawback  to  the  Springs, 
hut  happily  for  America,  the  lack  no  longer  exists,  since  the 
erection  of  the  Big  Iron  Bath-house  fully  supplies  every  need 
for  invalids.  The  structure  is  built  immediately  over  the  Big 
Iron  Spring,  the  finest  stream  in  the  valley,  possessing  min- 
eral qualities  far  superior  to  that  of  any  other  of  the  numer- 
ous springs.  Its  equipment  comports  with  the  character  of 
the  water,  the  building  being  of  iron  and  finished  in  the  most 
elaborate  and  expensive  manner.  It  is  provided  with  forty 
tubs,  including  sizes  ranging  in  capacity  from  the  small  indi- 
vidual to  the  largest  burgomaster  that  ever  brewed  ale. 
These  tubs  are  supplied  with  the  water  that  comes  boiling  up 


368  HOT  SPRINGS. 

from  beneath  them,  and  are  fitted  into  single  apartments  with 
all  the  needful  auxiliaries  for  the  most  comfortable  bath. 
Each  tub  has  its  concomitant  of  an  electric  bell  for  calling 
servants,  mirrors,  Brussels  carpets,  etc.,  and  the  building  is 
divided  into  compartments,  one  for  gentlemen  and  the  other 
exclusively  for  ladies,  so  that  there  is  never  any  interruption, 
and  each  class  can  bathe  during  any  hour  of  the  day.  In  all 
the  other  bathing  establishments  of  Hot  Springs,  iu  addition 
to  the  cost  of  the  bath,  the  servants  have  to  be  feed,  which 
entails  an  extra  cost  very  like  a  ride  through  a  "Backsheesh" 
settlement.  But  at  the  Big  Iron  Bath-house  the  price  of  a 
bath  ticket  includes  every  item  of  expense  and  every  attention 
that  can  possibly  be  given,  and  the  servants  here  are  much 
better  experienced  than  those  who  manipulate  the  patrons  of 
the  other  bathing  houses. 

As  to  the  exact  chemical  analysis  of  the  water  used  by  the 
representative  institution  of  the  Springs,  little  can  be  said, 
except  that  it  is  largely  impregnated  with  iron  and  magnesia, 
as  is  seen  by  the  deposit  it  leaves  ;  that  it  comes  out  of  the 
Tufa  rock  mountain,  at  a  uniform  temperature  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  degrees  Fahrenheit,  and  that  it  positively  cures 
every  character  of  disease,  save  possibly  those  aflfecting  the 
lungs.  The  proprietors  of  the  Big  Iron  Bath-house  are  D. 
B.  Elliott,  formerly  of  Paris,  Illinois,  Maj.  Wm.  H.  Nelson, 
of  Des  Moines,  a  retired  army  officer,  and  Capt.  George  M. 
French,  of  Little  Rock,  all  of  whom  are  thorough  gentlemen, 
of  the  most  fascinating  address,  and  their  enterprise  deserves 
the  popular  and  aristocratic  patronage  it  receives. 


BEAUTIES  OF  ST.  LOUIS. 


St.  Louis  has  been  boastful  of  her  beauties  and  charms 
that  make  her  in  reality  an  attractive  residence  city.  With 
characteristic  modesty  she  has  pushed  herself  into  importance 
by  a  quiet  industry,  felt  far  and  near,  as  evinced  by  the  uni- 
versal applause  she  has  won  as  a  city  of  solid  wealth  and 
healthy  enlargement.  Since  the  war,  new  impulses  have 
manifested  themselves.     The  mao;nificent  steel  bridire  snanninir 

O  CIO 

the  Mississippi,  as  a  great  highway,  has  been  perfected,  to  the 
admiration  of  the  world.  The  tunnel  linked  to  it  gives  j)assage 
to  volumes  of  increased  traffic,  facilitating  the  commerce  of 
the  continent  as  it  speeds  in  every  direction.  The  Union 
Depot,  that  promotes  easy  travel  and  makes  the  burden  of 
going  from  home  and  returning  a  comfort,  compared  with 
the  inconveniences  of  other  days,  when  clumsy  ferries  Avere 
in  vogue,  has  been  finished.  The  new  Lindell  has  been 
erected,  with  numerous  other  handsome  solid  structures  on 
Washington  Avenue,  making  that  avenue  beautiful  and 
attractive,  besides  becoming  the  great  commercial  center  of  the 
city.  The  enterprise  of  Main  Street  and  Second  Street  mer- 
chants made  a  revolution  Avhen  the  great  houses  of  Samuel  C. 
Davis  &  Co.,  Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.,  A.  A.  Mellier,  J.  II.  Wear, 
•  Boogher  &  Co.,  Semj^le,  Birge  &  Co.,  and  others,  resolved  to 
make  a  strike  for  up-town  localities,  that  not  only  gave  them 
immediate  advancement,  but  adorned  that  part  of  the  city 
which  the  old  Lindell  only  began  to  benefit  when  it  was 
destroyed.  The  coming  of  the  new  Lindell,  with  the  strength 
of  a  giant  youth,  has  more  than  exceeded  the  mission  of  its 
predecessor.  The  new  Custom-house  and  Post-office,  on 
Olive,  Locust,  Eighth  and  Ninth  streets,  is  fast  approaching 
completion.     The  new  Merchants'  Exchange,  on  Third,  Tine 

J!4  1369] 


370 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


and  Chestnut,  a  model  of  architectural  beauty,  is  a  notable 
accession  to  the  beauties  of  this  great  city. 

All  these  improvements  have  been  perfected  within  the 
past  few  3'ears.  A  tour  to  the  sul)urbs  brings  to  immediate 
notice  Tower  Grove  Park,  Forest  Park,  and  O'Fallon  Park, 
skirting  the  city's  western  limits.     Every  year  develops  these 


HOME  OF  G.  L.  JOY,  LAFAYETTE  AND  COMPTON  AVENUES. 

charming  health-spots  that  lend  attractions  to  a  great  city. 
When  the  Boulevards,  shaded  by  beautiful  trees  and  bordered 
by  rare  plants  and  flowers,  shall  intersect  all  these  gardens, 
and  give  us  miles  of  well-paved  drives  encircling  the  whole 
city,  St.  Louis  will  justly  claim  her  share  of  praise  among 
the  magnificent  cities  of  the  Union.     Already  signs  of  beauty 


BEAUTIES    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


371 


and  elegance  show  themselves,  especially  in  the  direction  of 
the  West  End.  Residences  around  Lafayette  Park  an^.  homes 
built  of  stone  found  near  the  city.  Plats  of  green  in  front, 
relieved  by  flower-beds,  with  neat  picket  fences  and  with 
ornamental  trees  along  the  sidewalks,  make  them  charming 
abodes  of  comfort.  Lafayette  Avenue,  leading  to  Comi)ton 
Hill  and  Grand  Avenue,  has  many  beauty-spots,  including 
the  homes  of  Mrs.  John  J.  Roe,  George  L.  Joy,  Esq.,  and 
other  beautiful  spots.  Pine,  Olive  and  Chestnut  streets, 
beyond  Twentieth  Street,  and  indeed  all  that  tract  known  as 
*' Stoddard  Addition,"  is  being  rapidly  tilled  up  with  elegant 


HOME  OF  A.  R.  KEWCOMB,  TOWER  GROVE. 

and  tasty  residences.  This  may  be  counted  as  one  of  the 
fashionable  parts  of  the  city,  not  forgetting  the  beauties  of 
Lucas  Place,  from  Fourteenth  to  Seventeenth  streets.  While 
the  elite  and  wealthy  seek  this  end  of  the  city,  there  are 
iidvanta«-es  here  for  those  in  moderate  circumstances.  Many 
c;ood  rows  of  buildings  have  been  erected  and  are  for  rent  on 
moderate  terms.  The  vicissitudes  of  business  life  and  the 
risks  that  have  attended  the  employment  of  cai)ital,  have 
driven  unemployed  capital  to  a  great  extent  into  this  class  of 
investments.     Hence,  dwellings  of  moderate  cost  have  been 


372 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


erected  in  large  numbers  of  late.  Cheapness  of  materials ; 
the  number  of  unemployed  mechanics  ;  the  vast  improvement 
and  impulse  given  of  late  to  domestic  architecture,  affords  a 
happy  combination  of  elegance,  convenience  and  economy. 
Looking  directly  north,  we  have  at  Jackson  Place,  on  North 
Market,  Eleventh  and  Twelfth  streets,  a  charming  little  circular 
park,  covering  a  square,  to  the  north  of  which  are  some  tasty 
homes,  including  that  of  J.  P.  Colby,  Esq. 

Farther  north  is  Hyde  Park ;  beyond  that  Park  Place. 
Both  of  these  localities  abound  in  well-built  homes,  built  for 
rent,  ranging  from  twenty  to  seventy-five  dollars  per  month, 
with  a  great  number  of  homes  the  property  of  the  occupants. 


HOME  OF  HON.  E.  O.  STANARD. 


This  delightful  home  of  Hon.  E.  O.  Stanard  is  located  on 
the  north  side  of  Lindell  Avenue,  just  west  of  Grand  Avenue, 
is  one  of  the  newest  residences  erected  in  that  part  of  the  city. 
It  stands  upon  a  commanding  elevation,  and  is  free  from  the 
smoke  and  noise  of  the  city.  It  is  built  of  Warrcnsburg  stone, 
with  French  plate  windows  and  mansard  roof,  and  is  hand- 
somely finished  inside  with  hard  Avoods  that  give  it  a  rich 
mterior  ;  the  steps  are  built  of  marble.  Its  elegant  propor- 
tions and  the  exquisite  taste  displayed  in  its  whole  appearance 


BEAUTIES    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


373 


make  it  an  attractive  and  pleasing  structure.  It  is  elcixantlv 
furnished  and  has  every  modern  improvement  to  make  it  a 
home  worthy  of  its  occupants.  Gov.  Stanard  and  his  worthy 
wife  are  lovers  of  art,  and  have  not  failed  to  gather  judiciously 
many  gems  that  adorn  very  tastefully  their  pleasant  al)ode. 
This  beautiful  home  is  pleasantly  located  on  Yandeventcr 
Place  and  Grand  Avenue.  It  stands  high  enough  to  overlook 
the  city  from  the  eastern  front.     Its  beautiful  lawn  always 


HOME  OF  CHAS    H,   PECK. 


looks  fresh,  and  is  a  grateful  sight  to  all  who  pass.  It  is  a 
handsome  structure,  built  of  Joliet  stone,  convenient,  tasty,  and 
has  all  the  ai)pear:uK'e  of  a  magnificent  })alntial  home.  Mr. 
Peck  is  recognized  as  one  of  our  most  enterprising  and  worthy 
citizens. 

A  drive  farther  west,  beyond  the  Fair  Grounds,  opens  to 


374  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

view  some  of  the  most  elegant  places,  adorned  with  everything 
to  make  human  abodes  lovely  and  attractive  ;  Cote  Brilliante, 
along  Kings'  Hrghway,  Papin  Avenue,  Magnolia  Avenue, 
passes  the  grounds  and  villas  of  Miles  Sells,  the  Scudder 
Brothers,  Samuel  Cupples,  Hon.  George  H.  Rea ;  and  that  of 
Marcus  A.  Wolff,  on  Papin  Avenue,  is  noteworty  for  its 
cosy,  home-like  air,  with  ample  flower-gardens,  and  one  of 
the  most  extensive  and  well  cultured  private  conservatories  in 
this  section.  The  skillful  hands,  taste,  and  experience  of 
Mrs.  Wolff  have  brought  to  perfection  what  is  more  than  an 
ordinary  attraction  to  a  home. 

Pursuing  our  ride  beyond  this  region,  going  due  west 
toward  Mt.  Olive  and  Creve  Coeur  Lake,  the  natural  beauties 
of  the  country  break  in  on  your  view.  Rich,  undulating  land, 
Avavino;  with  rich  grain  ;  then  a  ravine,  with  its  o-urirlinsr  stream 

O  o  '  '  coo 

and  overhanging  boughs  ;  then  a  clump  of  forest  trees  ;  then 
the  gentle  sloping  hillside,  with  here  and  there  a  fishing  lake, 
and  dotted  all  along  Mith  tidy,  home-like  villas,  that  make 
the  scene  one  of  continued  beauty. 

As  in  all  large  cities,  the  soot  and  smoke,  the  din  and  dust, 
are  to  be  avoided  if  possible.  Homes  should  be  as  remote  as 
possible  from  all  that  continuously  reminds  us  of  the  slave-toil 
part  of  life.  Where  trees  and  birds  and  fresh  air  can  be  gained, 
there  the  family  and  the  toiler's  life  should  reap  all  the  good 
attainable.  St.  Louis  is  not  wanting  in  facilities  for  reaching 
the  most  remote  points  of  her  outskirts.  Street-car  lines  in 
every  direction  bring  these  distant  homes  accessible  to  any 
point.  Five  cents  is  the  fare  allowed  to  be  charged  by  any 
company.  Going  north,  the  Broadway  line  penetrates  to 
Baden,  beyond  the  Bellefontaine  Cemetery;  then  the  Benton- 
Bellefontaine  line  traverses  Eleventh  Street,  and,  like  the 
Fourteenth  Street  and  Sixteenth  Street  lines,  carries  to  the 
Fair  Grounds.  Going  west,  the  Market  Street,  Olive  Street, 
Cass  Avenue,  and  Franklin  Avenue  lines,  carry  as  far  west  as 
Grand  Avenue,  and  from  this  point  the  Narrow  Gauge  line 
penetrates  for  miles  west  beyond  Forest  Park  toward  Mt.  Olive. 
To  the  southward,  the  Broadway  line  stretches  towards  Caron- 
delet ;  the  Gravois  line,  on  Pine  Street,  goes  beyond  the  Union 
Depot    to   Tower    Grove    Park ;    and    the  Lindell,   or   Blue 


BEAUTIES    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


375 


line,  on  AVasIiington  Avenue,  goes  beyond  Schnaider's  Garden 
to  Grand  Avenue  and  Chouteau  Avenue. 

Beyond  all  this  on  the  Missouri  Paeilic  are  the  suburban 
villages  of  Webster  Groves,  Kirkwood,  Glencoc  and  other 
gems  that  skirt  the  river  ;Meramec.  About  a  half  to  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour's  ride  in  the  aceomniodation  train  brings 
us  to  the  homes  of  many  of  our  best  citizens,  Avho  own  their 
villas  and  have  here  the  best  of  society,  with  every  domestic 
want  at  hand,  markets,  stores,  schools  and  churches,  Avith  nu- 
merous trains  and  their  own  conveyances  to  make  the  city  ac- 


nO.ME   OF  II.VMI'DKN    MKl'UAM,  KEOKUK  AVKNUK. 

cessible,  according  to  their  fancj-.  Manj^  of  our  merchants  find 
agreeable  localities  for  homes  on  the  Iron  ]Mountain  road  about 
the  vicinity  of  Carondelet ;  others  take  the  St.  Louis,  Kansas 
City  and  Northern,  going  to  Jennings,  Ferguson,  Brotherton 
and  St.  Charles,  while  many  mount  the  cars  at  the  Main  Street 
Depot  and  skip  to  Alton  and  many  other  pleasing  spots  in 
Illinois. 

St.  Louis  can  not  be  excelled  as  a  residence  city,  consider- 
ing the  accessibility  to  suburban  regions,  its  cheapness  of  rents, 
the  absence  of  all  speculative  prices  upon   its  real  estate,  the 


376 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


thorouo-hness  of  its  sewerage  arcl  other  well-ordered  sanitary 
measures  enforced,  the  ample  supi^ly  of  wdiolcsome  water,  the 
healthfulness  of  its  geographical  position,  the  moderate  rate  of 
taxation,  and  withal,  its  good  government. 

We  might  multiply  these  illustrations  of  homes,  for  St. 
Louis  abounds,  particularly  in  the  western  part  of  the  city,  in 
these  homes  that  indicate  wealth,  elegance  and  good  taste. 


HOME  OF  A.  O.  GRUBB,  KUIKWOOD. 

Complaint  is  made  frequently  of  the  lime,  dust  and  smoke 
of  St.  Louis.  To  any  large  manufacturing  city  coal  smoke  is 
an  attendant,  and  disagreeable,  of  course.  This  smoke  is  from 
the  carbon  ;  sulphur  and  iodine  contained  in  it  is  highly  favor- 
able to  lung  and  cutaneous  diseases.  The  smoke  is  also  anti- 
miasmatic,  and  in  some  degree  counteracts  miasmatic  affec- 
tions that  may  be  in  this  region.  In  1874  our  death-rate  per 
one  thousand  was  14.45,  being  considerably  less  than  in  any 
ocher  leadinu'  American  citv. 


BEAUTIES    OF    ST.    LOUIS.  -Ml 

Until  better  times  come  to  reduce  municipal  del)ts,  we 
must  bear  the  pain  of  dust  from  our  macadamized  streets  and 
endure  the  expense  of  watering  carts  to  allay  the  nuisance  that 
it  is. 

The  city  covers  an  immense  territory.  Streets  are  lonj^ 
and  expensive  to  pave,  even  with  the  limestone  that  underlies 
the  city,  and  that  is  prepared  by  convict  labor.  Patience,  and 
discovery  of  cheaper  methods  of  paving,  will,  in  a  short 
time,  when  taxes  can  be  safely  increased  to  meet  the  expenses, 
give  us  the  comfort  of  cleanliness  and  beauty  of  well-paved 
streets  and  avenues  equal  to  those  of  Paris  and  other  great 
cities  of  Europe. 

The  city  authorities  are  constantly  seekini^  liijlit  on  the 
subject,  endeavoring  to  find  that  material  which  will  combine 
durability  with  economy  ;  and  so  determined  are  they  that  it 
has  been  resolved  not  to  lay  down  any  more  stone  in  the  old 
macadam  style  upon  new  streets,  but  gradually  supersede  it 
with  the  Telford  pavement,  which  consists  of  a  top  layer  of 
gravel  over  the  macadam  beds,  and  any  other  system  that  will 
avoid  the  dust  and  give  us  a  cleaner  city 


SUMMER  PASTIMES. 


DAYS  BENEATH  THE  GREEN  FOREST  SHADE. 

When  the  long,  sultry,  summer  days  come,  and  all  fash- 
ionable St.  Louis  have  betaken  themselves  to  far-away  sweat- 
boxes,  called  summer  resorts,  at  Newport,  Rye  Beach,  Long 
Branch,  Saratoga,  and  Niagara,  the  residue  of  the  people, 
which  constitute  by  far  the  most  numerous,  and  infinitely  the 
most  respectable  elements  of  the  inhabitants,  remain  at  home, 
and  seek  recreation  and  enjoyments  in  their  own  way,  in  the 
suburban  groves  of  the  city. 

There  is  a  large  class  of  eminently  sensible  people,  not 
noted,  however,  as  society  gentlemen  and  ladies,  who  take  a 
rational  view  of  life,  and  seek  repose  during  the  long  summer 
days  beneath  the  forest  trees,  on  the  shores  of  lovely  lakelets 
in  the  far  Northwest  or  North,  or  among  the  sublime  moun- 
tain fastnesses  of  Colorado  and  Montana.  As  to  the  summer 
birds  who  fly  to  Newport,  Saratoga,  Long  Branch,  and  other 
places,  they  are  of  small  consequence  to  the  country  under 
anv  circumstances,  and  it  matters  little  what  pleasures  come 
to  them,  or  what  discomforts  and  evils  fall  upon  them,  for, 
as  a  general  rule,  they  are  persons  in  whose  minds  the  genius 
of  folly  revels,  in  whose  pockets  the  chink  of  dollars,  acquired 
by  frufjul,  hard-working  ancestors,  maybe  heard.  They  have 
done  nothing  for  the  world,  and  the  world  may  well  let  them 
go  on  the  road  to  forgetf  ulness. 

Then,  again,  there  are  the  art  and  student  classes,  who 
seek  instruction  abroad  among  the  famous  seats  of  culture  in 
the  Old  World.  They  go  to  learn.  The  preservation  of 
society  depends  as  much  on  aesthetics  as  on  ethics,  and  those 
who  seek  to  develop  the  taste  for  art  are  as  much  entitled  to 
the  consideration  of  the  thoughtful  as  those  who  seek  to  im- 
plant the  principles  of  morality  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 

[378] 


SUMMER    PASTIMES.  379 

people.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  a  large  i)roporti()ii  of  St.  Louis 
people  who  seek  the  great  cai)itals  of  Europe  during  the  sum- 
mer arc  persons  of  artistic  taste — students,  who  go  abroad  for 
the  purpose  of  gaining  a  more  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
conditions  of  a'sthetic  culture  in  the  ancient  scats  of  arts  and 
civilization.  These  are  valuable  members  of  society,  and  de- 
serve well  of  the  community.  Of  course,  we  have  another 
class — and  we  have  reason  to  be  thankful  that  it  includes  no 
more  members — who  go  abroad,  it  would  seem  for  the  express 
purpose  of  casting  reproach  upon  their  country.  These  are 
successful  stable-boys,  who  have  acquired  money  by  means 
fair  or  foul,  and  make  themselves  ridiculous  by  parading  their 
ignorance  in  the  very  shrines  of  culture  and  retinement  in  the 
Old  World.  Such  stable-boys  and  kitchen-maids,  who  go 
abroad  as  representative  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  our  country, 
are  unquestionably  calculated  to  lower  the  xVmerican  charac- 
ter in  the  estimation  of  all  intelligent  people,  who  have  no 
means  of  knowing,  save  by  the  samples  presented.  Fortu- 
nately this  class  is  gradually  fading  out,  and  the  cultured  men, 
who  have  a  better  recommendation  than  the  mere  possession 
of  dollars,  are  better  samples  of  the  American  citizen  abroad 
than  is  the  rich  ex-hod-carrier  and  his  vulgar  scullery  maid  of 
a  wife.  For  this  reason  the  American  character  is  better 
known  and  appreciated  abroad  than  it  otherwise  would  be. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  a  statement  of  the  manner  in  which  a 
small  minoiity  of  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis  numage  to  dispose 
of  their  time  in  the  summer  months.  The  rich  and  the  pre- 
tentious go  to  Saratoga,  Newport,  Far  Rockaway,  Long 
Branch,  Cape  Ma}^  Rye  Beach,  and  Niagara.  The  wcll-to-do- 
and-sensible  go  to  the  lakes  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  or 
to  the  mountains  of  Colorado  and  Utah  ;  or  perchance  to  the 
ancient  seats  of  arts  and  culture  in  Europe.  These  last  seek 
rest  or  knowledge,  neither  of  which  can  be  had  at  the  fashion- 
able resorts  first  named  above. 

But  the  classes  we  have  described  constitute  only  a  moiety 
of  the  whole  vast  population  of  the  city,  and  these  are  by  no 
means  the  most  im[)ortant  elements  of  the  city's  inhabitants. 
What  of  the/bwr  hundred  and  seventy-five  thounnnd people  who 
remain  at  home  through  the  long,  heated  days  of  summer? 


380  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Are  they  less  important  than  the  twenty-five  thousand  who 
have  gone  out?     We  will  not  discuss  the  question. 

Many  very  sensible  people  remain  at  home  instead  of  gad- 
ding abroad  during  the  summer  time.  It  is  no  part  of  our 
business  to  recommend  St.  Louis  as  a  fashionable  summer  re- 
sort, where  strangers  will  enjoy  all  the  sensuous  pleasures  of 
Elysium.  But  from  personal  experience  we  know  that  the 
inhabitant  of  St.  Louis  can  not  go  to  many  places- within  the 
limits  of  the  republic,  where  he  could  enjoy  life  in  the  summer 
season  so  well  as  in  his  own  city.  But  we  are  not  engaged  in 
writino;  an  arsjument  in  favor  of  remainino:  at  home. 

Now,  what  can  the  four  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand 
people,  who  spend  the  summer  in  St.  Louis,  do  to  live  through 
the  sweltering  heats  of  the  season?  Much,  very  much;  and 
we  shall  proceed  to  relate  some  facts  of  which  our  ultra-fash- 
ionables are  wholly  unaware. 

The  people  who  stay  at  home  have  all  the  amusements, 
suited  to  their  intellectual  and  moral  capacities,  which  the 
others  can  possibly  find  at  the  resorts  abroad,  and  they  escape 
many  of  the  annoyances  which  the  conventionalities  of  social 
life  inflict  at  any  other  place  than  home  ;  hence  the  summer 
enjoyments  of  the  vast  multitudes  of  those  who  can  not  get 
away  exceed  the  pleasures  of  those  who  resort  to  the  centers 
of  social  life  of  the  ultra-fashionable  type. 

The  question  may  be  asked.  How  can  such  a  thing  be  pos- 
sible? The  miles  of  stone-built  streets,  and  red-brick 
walls,  are  heated  only  in  a  less  degree  than  Nebuchadnezzer's 
furnace,  and  all  the  city  becomes  still  in  the  midst  of  the 
garish  light  of  the  August  sun.  Very  true.  But  the  city  does 
not  occupy  the  whole  space  of  a  continent,  or  even  of  a  county, 
and  outside — beyond  where  the  lines  of  brick  walls  cease,  and 
where  the  glaring  limestone  highways  no  longer  afliict  the 
eyes,  beneath  the  raj's  of  the  mid-summer  sun,  are  shaded 
dells,  and  leafy  groves,  and  mossy  banks,  and  breezy  hill- 
slopes,  where, 

"  On  such  a  time  as  goes  before  the  leaf, 
"When  all  the  woods  stand  in  a  mist  of  green," 

We  may  seek  that  rest,  and  time  and  opportunity  for  con- 
templation, which  so  pleases  the  genuine  lover  of  nature — the 


SUMMER   PASTIMES.  381 

soul  that  yields  naught  to  the  conventional  life  established  by- 
chattering  imbeciles  and  braying  fools — can  wander 

"In  our  low  world,  where  yet  'tis  sweet  to  live." 

'Tis  only  in  such  situations  that  men  can  truly  live — can 
rise  above  the  turmoil,  the  strife,  the  littlenesses  of  the  throng- 
ing world,  and  realize  that  there  is  something  higher,  nobler, 
better  than  a  subservient  yielding  to  the  demands  of  the  con- 
ventional society  one  meets.  Away  off  from  the  crowd  we 
begin  to  appreciate  the  yearnings  of  the  being  of  the  poet's 
creation — 

"Be  mine  a  philosopher's  life,  in  the  quiet  woodland  ways, 

Where,  if  I  can  not  be  giy,  let  a  passionless  peace  be  my  lot. 

Far  off  from  tlie  clamor  of  liars,  belled  in  the  hubbub  of  lies; 

Far  from  long-neck'd  geese  of  the  world  that  are  ever  hissing  dispraise. 

Because  their  natures  are  little,  and  whether  he  heed  it  or  not. 

Where  each  man  walks  with  his  head  in  a  cloud  of  poisonous  flies." 

Now,  that  is  just  precisely  what  very  many  intelligent  peo- 
ple of  St.  Louis,  possessed  of  ample  means,  do  every  year. 
They  let  "  the  long-neck'd  geese  "go,  and  they  stay  and  run 
out  into  the  quiet  forest  shades. 

The, summer  season  is  the  festive  time  of  the  majority  of 
the  inhabitants.  And  the  people  of  St.  Louis  are  quite  cos- 
mopolitan in  their  habits  and  manners.  They  are  the  children 
of  many  climes.  Here  are  to  be  found  natives  of  every  conti- 
nent. Of  course,  the  manners  and  customs  of  their  respective 
countries  are  still  cherished,  and  are  modifying  elements  in 
the  structure  of  our  social  life. 

Perhaps  the  influence  of  the  German  immigrants  have  ex- 
erted the  most  potent  influence  ih  the  formation  of  our  social 
life.  Accordingly,  we  find  transferred  to  the  west  banks  of  the 
Mississippi  the  same  social  customs  and  habits  which  charac- 
terize the  inhabitants  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  Oder, 
Main  and  Vistula 

The  hetereogeneous  elements  which  go  to  make  up  the 
population  of  St.  Louis,  in  the  process  of  homogenizing,  has 
caused  a  modification  of  all  the  social  forms  to  be  met  with  in 
other  parts  of  the  country.  Though  St.  Louis  may  be  rc- 
trarded  as  a  city  pre-eminently  Christian,  yet  it  can  not  Ix- 
claimed  that  its  inhabitants  are  pious,  in  the  sense  of  the  word 


SUMMER   PASTBIES.  383 

as  understood  in  Boston.  Indeed,  Sabbatarianism  never  ob- 
tained a  strong  ascendency  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  in- 
habitants of  St.  Lonis. 

Sunday  is  the  great  festival  day  of  our  people.  In  the 
summer-time  the  gardens  and  parks  of  the  city  and  the  subur- 
ban groves  are  thronged  by  immuierablc  multitudes,  including 
all  ages,  sexes  and  nationalities.  Music,  dancing,  ball  games, 
and  other  amusements  are  indulged  in  with  a  zest  which  shows 
the  intensity  of  the  pleasure  realized  from  them  by  the  partici- 
jxints.  Sunday  mornings  the  streets  and  roads  leading  to  the 
principal  parks,  the  suburban  gardens,  both  public  and  private, 
are  thronged  by  vehicles  of  every  class,  conveying  whole  fami- 
lies out  to  the  umbrageous  enclosures  for  a  day's  pastime. 
And  such  enjoyment  as  these  vast  throngs  manage  to  extract 
from  their  retirement  for  a  day,  even  a  few  hours,  to  the 
groves  and  gardens  !  All  the  glitter  and  glare,  and  ])ompou8 
splendors  to  be  seen  at  the  resorts  of  the  fashionable  could  not 
yield  such  pleasures  as  are  found  by  the  less  pretentious  bur- 
gers in  their  visits  to  their  favorite  gardens,  parks,  or  wood- 
land pastures.     To  them  these  visits  are  soul-feasts. 

One  of  the  peculiarities  of  German  customs  is  that  of  visit- 
ing places  of  public  resort  en  familie,  that  is,  the  parents 
always  insist  upon  having  the  companionship  of  their  children. 
It  is  often  the  case  that  a  family  consisting  of  husband  and  wife 
and  half  a  dozen  children  may  be  observed  seated  at  a  table, 
sipping  fresh,  foaming  beer,  and  eating  pretzels.  There  is  a 
freedom  of  intercourse,  and  withal,  a  refined  politeness  among 
even  the  lower  classes  of  the  children  of  the  Fatherland,  which 
might  be  imitated  by  more  pretentious  people  with  great  ad- 
vantage. 

So  the  summer  days  pass  away,  and  the  throngs  who  go  to 
the  gardens,  and  parks,  and  groves,  during  the  heated  term, 
manage  to  make  life  not  only  endurable,  but  pleasurable. 
Their  pastimes  yield  them  more  of  enjoyment  than  all  the 
courtly  balls  and  fashionable  dissipation  indulged  in  by  for- 
tune's favorites,  at  the  sea-side  and  other  resorts,  can  yield  to 
those  who  participate  in  such  splendid  revelry. 


THE   FIRE    DEPARTMENT. 


THE  MEN  WHO  BATTLE  WITH  THE  RED  DEMON. 

Midnio-ht  in  the  great  city,  and  all  is  well.  The  rattling, 
clashing,  rumbling  noises  which  characterized  the  day  have 
ceased,  and  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  citizens  so  full  of 
animation  and  action  during  the  day,  have  sought  repose,  and 
are  still  now.  The  tread  of  the  policeman  on  his  rounds,  the 
soft  strains  of  music  borne  from  some  brightly  lighted  man- 
sion, where  fair  women  and  brave  men  have  assembled  for  an 
evening's  enjoyment ;  the  song  of  the  belated,  boozy  bummer, 
who  has  just  left  a  saloon  full  of  sages,  with  whom  he  has 
ao-reed  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  universe,  and  who  now  tes- 
titles  his  joy  in  inarticulate  peans  of  praise,  to  the  virtues  of 
"old  rye,"  as  he  winds  his  uncertain  way  towards  the  place 
he  calls  home,  are  sounds  which  break  the  silence  which  might 
otherwise  reign  in  the  streets. 

An  hour  passes  on,  and  still  all  is  quiet  in  the  city.  The 
wind  sweeps  around  the  corners  and  whistles  among  the  cor- 
nices, and  sighs  among  the  gables  and  pinnacles  of  the  lofty 
buildings  which  line  the  streets.  The  music  has  almost  ceased, 
the  song  of  the  bummer  has  died  away,  and  the  shouts  of  the 
bacchanalians  are  not  so  frequently  heard.  Five,  ten,  fifteen 
minutes  pass.  It  is  a  witching  time  of  night.  Then  a  cry  is 
heard,  '■'-fire!  fire  !"  and  the  deep-toned  bells  from  a  dozen 
towers  toll  the  ominous  warning.  1-2,  then  a  pause,  and 
the  hammers,  controlled  by  a  mind  in  the  tower  of  the  Court- 
house and  acted  upon  by  a  stream  of  electricity,  slowly  strike 
1-2-3-4—5-6-7  strokes.  Tioenty-seven.  Once,  twice,  thrice, 
were  the  signals  given.  Fourth  and  Walnut  streets  !  The  very 
box  for  the  Southern  Hotel.  And  the  awakened  citizens  gazed 
out  on  the  night,  and  beheld  a  red  glare  on  the  sky,  and  a  brighter 

[384] 


FIRE    DEPARTMENT.  385 

center  as  if  from  a  rising  sun.     The  great  caravansary  was  on 
fire. 

But  at  the  first  tap  of  that  ominous  beil,  a  hundred  and 
eighty  men,  watching  in  more  than  a  dozen  engine-houses, 
sprang  from  their  drowsy  seats.  In  five  minutes  eighteen 
fiery  engines,  drawn  by  horses,  were  thundering  toward  the 
point  of  danger.  There  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  The  men 
and  the  engines  came.  Rapid  as  had  been  their  movements, 
they  came  too  hite.  Ab;eady  the  whole  interior  of  the  lower 
stories  of  the  vast  structure  was  a  seething  mass  of  flames. 
Away  up  in  the  windows,  with  flames  raging  behind  them,  and 
the  abyss  of  death — the  street — yawning  far  below  them,  could 
be  seen  the  awe-stricken  faces  of  those  prisoned  there  with 
no  hope  of  escape. 

Then  the  firemen  came,  and  the  ladders  were  erected,  and 
alas  !  they  were  not  high  enough  to  afibrd  means  of  escaj)o. 
The  moments  were  awful.  The  vast  croAvd  gazed  up  at  the 
ghastly  faces  of  the  apparently  doomed  ones.  Then  a  fireman, 
followed  by  another,  and  another,  with  an  additional  hook-lad- 
der caught  on  a  window-sill,  climbed  the  dangerous  height  and 
threw  themselves  into  the  room  where  they  were  awaiting  the 
doom  which  seemed  inevital)le.  The  crowd  became  almost 
breathless  with  suspense.  The  moments  a})poared  ages  of 
agony,  and  then  the  heroic  firemen  began  to  lower  the  poor 
girls,  one  by  one,  until  all  were  safe,  and  then  they  safely 
reached  the  main  ladder  and  safely  descended  themselves, 
while  a  wild  shout  of  exultation  and  joy  greeted  them.  No 
more  heroic  deeds  were  ever  performed  amid  the  thunders  and 
caniage  of  battle  than  were  there  performed  by  these  uncrowned 
kings  of  chivalric  daring. 

We  are  not  Avriting  biographies,  but  sketches  ;  not  history, 
but  matters  which  concern  the  people  of  the  present,  and  Avill 
interest  the  generations  to  come.  Hence,  the  notices  of  the 
lives  led  by  the  firemen.  There  are  a  hundred  and  eighty 
men  and  seven  officers,  stationed  in  the  various  engine-houses 
of  the  city,  with  eighteen  steam  fire  engines  and  hooks  and 
ladders,  and  hose  reels,  all  the  appointments  necessary 
to  contend  against  the  ravages  of  the  destructive  element. 
These  men  never  sleep — that  is  to  say,  not  all  of  them  at  once. 

25 


386 


TOUR    OF       ST.    LOUIS. 


Connected   with    every  engine-house  is    a    telegraphic  signal 
srongr,  which  is  sounded  from  the  Court-house. 

Day  or  night,  at  all  hours,  the  Fire  Department  is  ready 
for  action.  Let  but  the  alarm  gong  ring  and  in  an  instant 
there  is  a  scene  of  activity,  a  rapidity  of  motion,  which  char- 
acterizes every  movement  of  man  or  beast  around  the  engine- 


houses  which  is  absolutely  startling.  At  the  hour  of  mid- 
night, at  one,  two,  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  signal 
provokes  them  to  action,  and  in  less  time  than  it  requires  to 
describe  the  scene  which  ensues,  they  are  thundering  with 
their  ponderous  engines  through  the  streets  on  their  way  to 
the  fire. 


FIRE    DEPARTMENT.  387 

Among  the  first  to  reach  the  scene  of  threatened  disaster 
is  the  Chief  of  the  Department,  Mr.  II.  Chiy  Sexton.  It  has 
never  been  explained  how  he  manages  it,  but  it  is  nevertheless 
a  general  fact,  that  it  matters  not  what  part  of  the  city  is 
threatened  by  a  great  conflagration,  11.  Clay  Sexton  is  among 
the  first  to  reach  the  post  of  duty.  Always  alert,  sober,  clear- 
headed, quick  in  perception,  powerful  in  action,  if  any  city  can 
claim  a  Chief  of  the  Fire  Department  who  thoroughly  under- 
stands his  business,  St.  Louis  is  entitled  to  prefer  that  claim. 
And  the  Chief  has  able  assistance.  Geo.  W.  Tennille,  for  many 
years  Secretary,  still  retains  the  position  at  this  writing. 
John  W.  Bame  is  the  Assistant  Engineer  to  the  Chief. 

The  organization  of  the  Fire  Department,  due  in  a  large 
measure  to  the  executive  capacity  of  the  Chief,  is  the  most 
efficient,  perhaps,  of  any  in  the  United  States.  The  men  are 
very  carefully  selected.  Since  the  Chief  is  a  very  strict  tem- 
perance man,  and  seeks  such  to  serve  the  department,  though 
he  does  not  make  strict  temperance  a  test  of  a  man's  qualifica- 
tion as  a  fireman. 

The  losses  by  fire  in  St.  Louis  are  less  in  proportion  than 
in  any  other  American  city.  That  speaks  well  for  the  efficiency 
of  our  Fire  Department.  It  is  the  best  organized  fire  brigade 
in  America. 


THE  METROPOLITAN  POLICE. 


HOW  ST.  LOUIS  IS  KEPT  ORDERLY. 


A  city  without  police  protection  would  be  a  very  unde- 
sirable place  of  residence.  From  the  very  nature  of  the  case 
a  city  is  necessarily  a  sort  of  social  cess-pool  for  a  wide  region 

of  country,  and  all  the 
highways  of  trade  con- 
veririn 2  toward  it,  are  but 
so  many  sewers  through 
which  the  social  filth  of 
villages,  hamlets,  and 
small  cities  find  an  out- 
let. 

We  can  scarcely  im- 
asrine  the  condition  of  a 
city  of  half  a  million  of 
people,  if  it  were  not 
strictly  and  efficiently 
guarded.  Here  in  St. 
Louis  are  the  good  and 
the  bad,  the  latter  consti- 
tuting a  very  numerous 
class  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  place.  In  order 
to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  the  better  classes,  it  is 
essential  that  the  propensities  of  the  pariahs  should  be  held 
in  check  with  a  stern  and  strong  exhibition  of  force. 

How  can  this  be  done?  This  was  a  question  years  ago; 
it  is  scarcely  one  for  discussion  now.  Municipal  governments, 
especially  that  part  of  it  concerned  in  the  preservation  of  the 

[388] 


JAMES  MCDONOUGH,  CHIEF  OF  POLICE. 


THE    METROPOLITAN    POLICE.  389 

peace,  the  enforcement  of  the  huv  and  the  maintenance  of 
good  order,  must  not  be  subjected  to  the  local  inilucnces  of 
political  combinations.  If  such  was  the  case,  there  can  be  lit- 
tle doubt  that  justice  could  not  maintain  a  footing  in  populous 
cities.  Think  of  the  law-breakers  electing  the  executors  of 
the  demands  of  the  law  !  It  would  be  unwise  to  trust  such 
agencies  in  the  preservation  of  order.  The  police  would  be 
under  the  control  of  the  mob.  Even  under  the  metropolitan 
system,  there  is  occasional  exhibitions  of  a  partisan  spirit  not 
at  all  pleasant  to  contemplate. 

St.  Louis  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  her  police  organization. 
Boston,  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore  and 
Chicago,  each  support  a  larger  force  of  policemen  than  is 
maintained  in  St.  Louis.  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  city  on 
the  American  continent  is  more  thoroughly  and  efficiently 
guarded  than  the  metropolis  of  the  great  valley.  In  moral 
qualities,  physical  development  and  intellectual  attainments, 
the  St.  Louis  police  force  may  be  regarded,  as  a  class,  as 
superior  men. 

The  government  of  this  force  is  under  a  Board  of  Com- 
missioners, who  are  nominated  by  the  Governor  and  confirmed 
by  the  Senate.  There  are  four  of  them,  and  they  hold  office 
for  the  term  of  four  years.  But  the  appointments  are  so 
arranged  that  only  two  of  them  go  out  of  office  in  any  one 
year.  The  Ma^^or  of  the  city  is,  ex  officio,  a  member  of  the 
Board.  It  is  the  province  of  the  Board  to  examine  and  act 
upon  all  applications  for  enrollment  in  the  ranks  of  the  force, 
appoint  the  chief,  captains,  sergeants,  and  generally  to  enact 
rules  and  issue  orders  to  the  officers  who  are  charged  with  the 
command  of  the  force.  The  Commissioners,  in  1878,  were, 
Hon.  Henry  Overstolz,  Mayor,  and  ex  officio  President  of  the 
Board,  John  G.  Priest,  Silas  Bent,  Dr.  J.  C.  Nidelet,  and 
Basil  Duke. 

The  officers  of  the  force  consists  of  one  chief,  six  captains, 
40  sergeants,  311  patrolmen,  99  special  officers,  12  detectives 
and  officers  detailed  for  special  service,  13  turnkeys  and  six 
janitors  and  armorers,  making  a  total  force  of  488  officers 
and  men.  Certainly  this  is  not  a  large  force  to  guard  a  city 
covering  a  territory  of  fifteen  miles  in  length  and  from  two  to 


390  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

six  miles  in  width,  with  a  population  estimated  at  more  than 
half  a  million  of  inhabitants.  Still  we  reiterate  the  assertion 
that  there  is  not  a  city  on  the  American  continent  where  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  citizens  are  more  secure  than  in 
St.  Louis. 

Such  a  condition  of  things  could  not  exist  under  the  old 
order  of  things,  when  political  interests  dictated  the  character 
of  the  police  of  the  city 

Under  the  metropolitan  system  the  members  of  the  Board 
are  not  directly  responsible  to  the  city  government  for  the 
manner  in  which  they  administer  the  trust  confided  to  them, 
hence  they  are  not  dependent  upon  local  political  favor  for 
their  j)laces,  and  may  defy  the  ward  politicians  if  they  choose 
to  do  so.  This  is  a  situation  so  essential  to  the  discipline  and 
efficiency  of  the  force  that  no  one  in  the  city  who  desires  the 
reign  of  law  and  the  maintenance  of  order  would  have  the 
system  changed. 

The  city  is  divided,  for  police  purposes,  into  six  districts, 
each  of  which  is  commanded  by  a  captain.  In  each  of  these 
there  is  a  station-house  and  a  sub-station.  The  "  Mounted 
District,"  so  named  because  the  patrolmen  and  their  com- 
manding officers  are  mounted,  includes  all  the  suburban  por- 
tion of  the  city,  and  extends  from  Bisscll's  Point,  on  the  north, 
to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Des  Peres,  on  the  south,  reaching 
entirely  around  the  rear  of  the  thickly  populated  districts  of 
the  city.  This  mounted  battalion  is  a  most  important  arm  of 
the  police  service  in  St.  Louis. 

The  efficiency  of  the  police  in  modern  times  is  greatly 
promoted  by  the  complete  system  of  communication  which 
science  has  developed.  Every  district  station-house,  every 
sub-station,  and  all  important  municipal  institutions  are  con- 
nected by  telegraph  with  the  police  headquarters  at  the  Four 
Courts.  In  whatever  part  of  the  metropolitan  district  a  crime 
may  be  committed,  the  fact  once  communicated  to  the  officer 
in  charge  of  a  station-house  or  sub-station,  it  is  at  once  com- 
municated to  the  office  of  the  Chief  of  Police  at  the  Four 
Courts,  and  from  thence  the  information  is  at  once  transmitted 
to  every  station-house  in  the  city.  In  an  incredibly  brief 
time  almost  half  a  thousand  shrewd,  watchful  men,  scattered 


THE    METROPOLITAN    POLICE.  391 

over  the  city,  from  Bissell's  Point  to  Carondolet,  are  sharply 
on  the  look-out  for  the  violators  of  the  hiw.  Under  suc-h 
circumstances  it  is  no  easy  matter  for  the  criminal  to  escape. 
It  is  a  matter  of  astonishment  to  the  uninitiated  that  so  lart^e 
a  proportion  of  the  violators  of  the  law  in  this  city  are 
brought  to  justice.  Notwithstanding  the  daily  occurrence  of 
criminal  acts,  in  almost  every  instance  the  guilty  ones  are 
arrested,  and  if  they  escape  the  penalty  for  their  misdeeds,  it 
is  no  fault  of  the  police  force. 

There  are  occasionally  violations  of  law  committed  by  old, 
shrewd  and  expert  criminals  which  remain  somewhat  of  a 
mystery,  because  of  the  skill  of  the  perpetrator.  But  such 
incidents  in  the  history  of  St.  Louis  police  operations  are 
rare.  Some  of  the  shrewdest  burglars  and  other  "  crooked  " 
characters,  who  have  eluded  the  police  of  European  and  our 
Atlantic  seaboard  cities,  have  proved  unequal  to  the  task  of 
*' dusting  the  eyes"  of  St.  Louis  officers.  Every  year  a 
number  of  these  "  hard  cases  "  come  to  grief  on  account  of 
their  failure  to  understand  the  tact  of  St.  Louis  police  officials. 

The  stranger  in  St.  Louis  is  perhaps  better  protected  than 
in  any  other  city  at  all  approximating  it  in  size.  In  New 
York  there  are  pitfalls  into  which  the  unwary  visitor  is  almost 
certain  to  stumble  when  guided  by  the  skillful  "crook."  In 
St.  Louis  there  are  pitfalls  also,  but  the  "  crooks  "  are  under 
such  strict  surveillance  that  it  is  a  rare  thing  if  they  succeed 
in  successfully  "  playing  their  game." 

Perhaps  there  is  room  for  just  one  criticism  of  the  police 
system  of  St.  Louis.  The  rules  of  promotion  seem  to  be 
defective,  if  not  entirely  nugatory.  Long  service  and  merit 
does  not  necessarily  ensure  promotion.  Indeed,  it  is  seldom 
that  the  Chief  of  Police  has  been  selected  from  the  force. 
However,  there  have  been  but  few  chiefs  of  the  force  who 
have  not  had  experience  as  policemen. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  but  just  to  say,  that  taken  altogether, 
the  police  system  of  St.  Louis  is  excellent,  and  the  personnel 
and  splendid  discipline  of  the  force  is  a  matter  of  pride  to 
every  St.  Louisian. 


THE  PARIAHS  IN  THE  DOCKS. 


THE  DRAMA  OF  LIFE  PLAYED  IN  POLICE  COURTS. 

The  stranger  to  the  city,  who  desires  to  gain  a  knowledge 
of  every  phase  of  low  life  in  St.  Louis,  with  the  least  possible 
delay,  should  visit  the  police  courts.  Of  these  courts,  for  the 
trial  of  persons  accused  of  petty  crimes  and  misdemeanors, 
there  are  three :  one  in  that  part  of  the  city  known  as  Caron- 
delet,  over  which  Judge  Spies  presides  ;  another  is  held  in  the 
Four  Courts  ;  and  the  other,  known  as  the  Second  District 
Court  is  held  in  the  old  Mozart  Hall  building,  situated  on  the 
corner  of  Fifth  and  Biddle  Streets  We  have  already  given 
some  account  of  the  Central  District  Court,  presided  over  bj 
Judge  Jecko,  in  the  Four  Courts  building.  Judge  Dennison 
holds  his  trial  levees  in  the  Second  District  Court. 

Dismissing  the  Carondelet  Court,  in  which  there  are  the 
fewest  number  of  cases  tried,  we  shall  endeavor  to  present 
some  of  the  scenes  daily  enacted  in  Judge  Dennison's   Court. 

It  is  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Already  a  considerable 
number  of  persons  have  gathered  in  the  court-room.  The 
marshal  is  at  his  desk  ;  the  clerk  is  at  his  place  ;  the  city  pros- 
ecutor is  leisurely  looking  over  his  docket,  and  a  deputy 
marshal  is  keeping  ward  at  the  prisoners'  dock.  The  Second 
District  Court  is  situated  in  what  is  regarded  as  "  a  hard  neigh- 
borhood." Undoubtedly  there  are  a  great  many  very  rough 
citizens  dwelling  in  that  vicinity.  The  stranger,  as  he  enters 
the  court-room,  will  be  forcibly  impressed  that  the  audience 
about  him  are  not  just  exactly  such  persons  as  he  would  like 
to  associate  with  on  terms  of  familiarity.  Indeed,  there  are 
few  among  them  whom  he  would  take  delight  in  meeting  at 
a  lonely  spot  in  the  night-time.     It  is  a  hard  crowd. 

Order  is  called.     The  judge  has  taken  his  seat.     The  trials 

[333] 


THE    PARIAHS    IN    THE    DOCKS. 


393 


begin.  The  delay  is  very  brief,  when  he  commences  caliini,'  the 
docket.  Number  such  and  such;  "Case  of  Kate  Smith, 
charged  with  being  drunk  on  the  street."  It  is  not  her  first  time 
in  court.  Kate  resides  for  the  greater  portion  of  licr  time  in 
the  City  Work-house.  She  gets  out  occasionally,  and  then  gets 
drunk  in  order  to  be  sent  back  to  her  old  place  in  i)rison.  Her 
case-  is  quickly  disposed  of.  The  trial  proceeds  about  as  fol- 
lows : 

Judge. — "  You  here  again?     You  are  charged  with  having 


POLICE  COUIIT, 

been  drunk  on  the  street,  Kate.  Are  you  guilty  or  not 
guilty?" 

K. — "  An'  fwhat  if  I  was  iver  so  dhruidv?  The  perlace- 
man,  the  spalpeen  a  standin'  afore  yer  honor,  is  prajudyced 
agin  me,  an'  he  jist  tuk  me  in  onyhow — an' " 

Judge. — "  That  will  do.  Five  dollars.  Call  the  next  case, 
Mr.  Marshal." 


394  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  unfortunate  prisoner,  with  bare  feet,  bloated  face,  and 
tlisgustingl}^  slatternly  attire,  is  sternly  commanded  to  take 
her  place  in  the  dock  for  the  condemned.  They  never  ask  her 
to  pay  the  fine.  She  is  doomed  to  the  rocks.  The  officers 
know  she  has  not  a  nickel  toward  paying  the  fine  imposed. 

The  next  case  is  somewhat  different.  "      - 

The  marshal  calls  out  "  Mina  Schlessel."  A  deutsches 
madchen,  who,  but  for  the  unmistakable  expression  of  a  cor^- 
rupted  nature,  would  be  regarded  as  a  comely  girl,  takes  her 
place  by  the  side  of  the  prosecutor. 

"  You  are  charged  with  being  a  street- walker — plying  your 
vocation  on  the  public  street.     Are  you  guilty  or  not  guilty?" 

It  is  the  prosecuting  officer  who  interrogates  this  time.  The 
girl  is  slow  to  answer. 

"  What  say  you,  Mina?     Do  you  speak  English?' 

"  Ya,"  she  saj'S.     "  Ich  Englisch  sprech." 

"  Well,  are  you  guilty  of  this  charge?" 

*'  Veil,  Ich  dells  you  de  trut.  Vat  you  calls  geelty?  Ich 
var  yust  talking  a  leedle  mit  a  shentlemans  ven  der  politzeman 
komt  und  sagt,  '  Sie,  geh  mit  mir.'     Das  is  alle." 

Then  the  judge  calls  the  officer  who  made  the  arrest,  and 
enquires  of  him  concerning  the  character  of  the  girl. 

"  What  do  you  know  of  this  girl,  officer?" 

"  I  know  she  is  a  hard  case.  She  is  one  of  the  Blank 
Alley  crowd.  See  her  out  every  night.  Have  warned  her  to 
keep  off" the  street.     She's  a  very  hard  customer." 

"Ten  dollars.  This  her  first  arrest?  Yes?  Well,  ten 
dollars,  with  stay  of  execution  on  condition  of  good  behavior. 
Call  the  next  case.' 

And  so  the  trials  proceed.  One  hard-faced  and  tougher- 
fisted  citizen  was  collared  while  carrying  on  a  discussion  with  a 
neighbor,  "  wid  jist  a  bit  av  shtick  no  bigger  nor  yer  little 
finger,  an'  not  half  so  big,  ayther."  Another  had  indulged 
in  a  few  mugs  of  lager  bier,  and  vas  yust  so  streat  as  nefer  vas. 
Then  a  big  burly  citizen  of  color,  was  "collared"  while  in 
a  suspicious  position  in  relation  to  the  house  of  a  stranger.  A 
countryman  had  fallen  among  the  Philistines,  taken  too  much 
bad  whisky,  lost  his  money,  and  his  reason,  too  ;  raised  a  row 
with  the  first  man  he  met,  and  brought  up  in  the  station-house. 


THE    PARIAHS    IN    THE    DOCKS.  .395 

He  had  come  to  the  city  to  see  the  giralFe,  and  had  found  him. 
The  judge  considerately  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  go  his 
way,  with  a  promise  that  he  would  sin  no  more. 

There  were  many  cases,  but  none  of  them  occupied  much 
time.  The  way  business  is  transacted  in  these  courts  is  doli- 
ciously  sententious.  In  a  couple  of  hours  twenty-tive  or  more 
of  the  wretched  beings,  picked  from  the  sloughs  and  slums  of 
the  great  city,  have  been  tried  and  sentenced,  or  again  lil)er- 
ated,  to  be  brought  up  again  at  some  future  assize. 

The  audiences  which  assemble  in  these  court-rooms  are 
always  the  same.  The  individual  entities  which  constitute 
them  may  and  do  change,  but  the  distinctive  character  of  the 
aggregate  mass  never  changes. 

The  morbid  curiosity  of  some,  the  personal  interest  felt  in 
some  particular  culprit  on  the  part  of  others,  are  motives  which 
prompt  a  part  of  the  individuals  composing  these  police-court 
throngs.  Others  are  there  because  they  have  nothing  else  to 
do,  and  would  not  hav^e  anything  to  do  if  they  could.  But 
after  all,  it  is  a  sorry  spectacle,  and  a  wretched  crowd. 

These  are  all  pariahs  ;  with  rare  exceptions  they  belong  to 
the  great  outcast  host  ever  found  within  the  populous  purlieus 
of  a  great  city.  Men  and  women  without  hope,  without  a 
future  before  them  ;  cared  for  by  nobody,  and  caring  for  no 
one ;  who  are  ever  marching  in  seried  ranks,  grimy  and  repul- 
sive, to  the  final  scene,  when  for  them  the  pulse-boat  of  time 
shall  cease  forever.  Such  are  the  scenes  that  may  be  witnessed 
every  morning  in  the  three  police  courts  of  St.  Louis.  Header, 
would  you  enjoy  such  a  spectacle  of  misery,  wretchedness  and 
degradation  as  any  one  of  them  presents  any  day  of  the  week? 
No?  Well,  why  are  such  scenes  possible  in  this  age,  in  this 
country,  under  owr  institutions?  Go  to  asocial  science  mcct- 
ins: !  Well?  What  do  vou  hear?  That  man  is  intended  bv 
nature  to  be  a  self-governing  being ;  that  his  highest  moral 
perfection  lies  in  his  most  perfect  self-control ;  and  further, 
that  our  responsibility  as  men  is  prior  to  our  responsibility  as 
citizens.  All  very  well,  and  yet  there  must  be  something  rad- 
ically wrong  in  the  present  constitution  and  tendency  of  our 
social  and  political  life  to  produce  such  a  class  as  that  which 
we  have  just  attempted  to  describe.     Are  these   pariahs   of 


396  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

society  all  innately  bad?  Let  the  teachers  of  social  science 
and  economy  answer.  What  environments  are  theirs?  What 
star  of  hope  gleams  on  their  pathway?     Who  will  say? 

So,  day  by  day,  and  week  after  week,  through  the  months, 
and  on  while  the  long  years  roll  away,  the  police  courts  of  the 
great  city  are  sending  the  ^ana/is  down  to  the  rock-pile — to 
the  prison.  Do  they  become  better  for  their  experience  there? 
Are  they  even  deterred  from  their  depredations  on  society? 
These  are  questions  w^hich  the  thoughtful  should  desire  to  see 
answered. 

Generally  by  12  o'clock,  meridian,  the  judges  of  the  police 
courts  have  completed  their  morning  task.  The  grimy,  un- 
shorn and  shaggy-bearded  men,  and  the  blear-eyed  and  untidy 
Avomen  have  gone  out  from  the  enjoyment  of  the  morning's 
entertainment — for  such  it  was  to  them.  The  place  has  be- 
come quiet  and  still.  Well,  there  were  tragedies  in  real  life 
enacted  here  but  an  hour  ago.  Where  are  the  actors  now.'' 
Where?  Yes,  where  the  victors  and  the  victims  of  life's 
trao;ic  stage  ?     Where  ? 


WATS  THAT  ARE  DARK. 


SOME  OF  THE  TRICKS   PLAYED  BY  THIEVES  AND 

SWINDLERS. 

'•Ah,  sir,  I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,  but  I  think  you  have 
dropped  your  pocketbook.  I  have  just  picked  it  up.  By  the 
"way,  sir,  it  appears  to  be  well  filled — indeed,  a  fat  pocket- 
book,  sir." 

This  little  speech  was  addressed  to  a  substantial  looking 
citizen  who  was  hurrying  away  from  the  Union  Depot  towards 
the  marts  of  trade  on  Main  Street  and  on  Washington  Avenue. 


WAYS    THAT    ARE    DARK. 


397 


The  person  who  held  a  hirirc  :uul  f:it  lookina:  pocket l>()ok 
in  his  hand  was  well  dressed,  and  i)resented  allo<2;ellier  a  ^J^cn- 
tlenianly  front. 

The  person  addressed  immediately  turned,  and  with  con- 
sternation depicted  in  every  feature,  with  eyes  which  seemed 
ready  to  ])urst  from  their  sockets,  he  stared  at  his  interlocutor 
and  thrust  his  hand  into  his  pocket. 


POCKETBOOK-DROPPIVG  GAME. 


«'I  am  quite  sure,  sir,  that  you  are  the  gentleman  who 
dropped  this,"  and  he  held  the  pocketbook  close  to  the  face  of 
our  honest  friend  from  the  rural  districts. 

Of  course  the  honest  gentleman  soon  ascertained  that  his 
own  cash  was  all  right,  and  was  on  the  point  of  saying  so, 
when  the  pleasant  looking  person  interrupted  him  by  saying : 


398  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

"Surely  this  is  yours.  I  could  swear  I  saw  it  fall  from 
your  coat  pocket,  or  from  about  your  person.  You  had  better 
examine  your  coat  pocket,  sir  ;  I  have  no  desire  to  keep  your 
money.  See  here,"  and  he  adroitly  opened  the  book  which 
was  filled  with  nicely  engraved  papers  which  appeared  marvel- 
ously  like  bonds  or  stocks,  and  opening  it  out  wide,  displayed 
in  the  bill  case,  a  large  number  of  green  colored  bills  on  which 
the  astonished  gentleman  from  the  rural  "deestricks"  saw  the 
talismanic  fijrures  500.     That  was  sufficient. 

"Why — why,  upon  my — upon  my  w-w^ord,  I  b-believe  I-I 
h-have  l-lo " 

"I  felt  sure  you  had — did  not  want  to  keep  your  money, 
sir.  Honesty  is  the  best  policy,  after  all,  sir.  This  is  your 
property.  Must  be  several  thousands  of  it,  at  least.  Glad,  sir, 
to  be  able  to  restore  it  to  you." 

By  this  time  the  pocketbook  is  all  closed  up  again.  Our 
honest  friend  from  the  rural  "deestricks"  has  extended  his  hand 
for  the  property  which  never  was  his  own.  The  finder — so- 
called — places  it  in  his  hand.  He  is  exultant.  The  honest 
fellow  who  had  given  him  the  valuable  book  appeared  to  be  a 
little  reluctant  to  turn  away.  The  gentleman  from  the  country 
remembers  the  service  rendered  just  at  the  right  time,  and  as 
the  city  gent  is  bidding  him  good-day,  he  calls  to  him  : 

"Much  obliged,  much  obliged." 

The  other  retorts  :  "But  thanks  get  no  dinners  for  the 
recipient." 

"True,  true.  Here,  you  have  done  me  a  great  service." 
He  dives  his  hand  into  his  pocket,  fishes  out  a  ten-dollar  note, 
and  hands  it  to  the  honest  citizen,  who  takes  it  and  immediately 
disappears. 

The  poor  deluded  flat,  or  "gray,"  as  the  sharp  ones  call 
him,  goes  on  his  way,  chuckling  over  his  own  good  luck  and 
shrewdness. 

Later,  the  very  honest  man,  who  sought  to  reap  where  he 
had  not  sowed,  discovers  the  cheat,  mourns  over  his  vanished 
ten-dollar  note,  curses  the  swindler  who  got  it,  and  thinks  of 
calling  in  the  police  ;  considers  awhile,  and  arrives  at  the  sage 
conclusion  that  he  will  keep  his  own  counsels  about  the  affair 
and  profit  by  experience.     The  difference  between  the  two  men 


WAYS  THAT  ARE  DARK.  399 

in  this  case  is  that  one  is  a  shrewd,  professional  knave,  and  the 
other  is  a  knave  and  a  fool. 

The  game  described  above  is  an  old  one,  and  yet  scarcely 
a  month  passes  away  without  its  being  played  in  this  city. 
Perhaps  it  will  require  some  years  more  for  the  fool-killer  to 
complete  his  task. 

It  sometimes  becomes  necessary  for  those  engaged  in  the 
detection  of  crime  and  the  }nniishnient  of  offenders,  to  com- 
promise matters  with  the  very  worst  of  knaves.  The  truth  is, 
some  of  the  cracksmen,  counterfeiters,  forgers,  and  other 
*'crooked  characters,"  are  men  of  education,  untlinching  cour- 
age, and  surpassing  shrewdness.  They  have  traveled  in  devi- 
ous ways  from  their  earliest  youth,  and  they  have  devoted  all 
their  powers  of  mind  in  planning  robberies,  and  devising  ways 
and  means  to  defeat  the  "fly  cops,"  who  are  regarded  ])y  them 
as  their  natural  enemies.  The  greatest  displays  of  ingenuity 
and  shrewdness,  by  the  ablest  detectives,  are  often  vain.  The 
"crooks"  have  effectually  "covered  their  tracks  ;"  they  have 
bagged  the  game  and  have  it  securely  in  their  own  hands. 
These  masters  in  the  art  of  thieving  well  know  when  the}'  hold 
the  "trumps,"  and  they  never  think  of  allowing  the  "cops" 
to  play  them  out  of  their  hands.  They  know  far  too  much  for 
that,  and  they  always  profit  by  their  knowledge.  Sometimes 
the  results  of  a  great  haul,  amounting  to  thousands  of  dollars, 
is  so  securely  "planted,"  that  is,  concealed,  that  the  utmost 
efforts  of  the  detectives  are  vain.  The  thieves  having  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  situation,  and  knowing  that  the  detectives 
have  been  foiled,  sometimes  employ  a  negotiator — a  third 
party,  who  had  no  concern  in  the  robbery — to  make  terms  with 
the  parties  in  interest.  In  some  of  the  great  robberies  of  banks 
and  jewelry  stores  which  have  taken  place  in  this  city,  the 
cracksmen  have  carried  oft'  other  valuables  besides  cash.  These 
o-oods  or  securities,  as  the  case  may  be,  having  been  safely  de- 
posited  where  the  police  can  not  find  them,  and  then  they  open 
up  negotiations  for  a  compromise. 

In  such  cases  the  agents  of  the  thieves,  who  in  some  in- 
stances are  lawyers,  make  a  proposition  to  restore  so  nuuh, 
or  all  the  property,  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  payment  of 
a  certain  sum  or  the  retention  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  stolen 


400 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


goods  or  money.  A  bargain  is  made  between  the  agent  and 
the  detectives  and  victim  or  victims  of  the  robbery,  an  ap- 
pointment is  made,  and  the  two  meet  and  the  stolen  property 
is  restored. 

In  tlie  case  presented  in  the  cut,  the  detectives  were  com- 
pletely powerless  to  restore  the  property  to  its  rightful  owners. 
The  cracksmen  "had  played  it  very  tine,"  and  as  there  were 


RESTORING  STOLEN  PROPERTY. 

many  valuable  papers  as  well  as  a  large  sum  of  money,  a  com- 
promise had  to  be  effected,  in  order  that  the  victims  might  re- 
gain possession  of  important  documents.  A  well-known  secret 
service  man  met  the  agent  of  the  "crooks"  in  a  Fifth  Street 
saloon  by  appointment,  and  the  business  was  settled,  which 
left  the  thieves  in  possession  of  more  than  sixty  thousand  dol- 
lars as  the  result  of  one  night's  work.     This  was  a  noted  case 


WAYS  THAT  ARE  DARK.  401 

and  it  occurred  several  years  ago.  But  settlements  of  a  simi- 
lar character  are  made  constantly  iu  this  city.  The  victims 
can  only  have  "Hobson's  choice" — accept  tiie  terms  ollered  or 
nothing. 

There  are  various  sorts  of  confidence  swindles  constantlv 
practiced  in  St.  Louis.  In  this  respect  the  city  is  no  worse 
than  other  cities.  Such  scoundrels  alwavs  con'^^rci^ate  in  "-roat 
human  hives  for  opportunities  to  ply  their  vocation. 

The  Union  Depot,  the  packet  landings,  and  the  vicinity  of 
the  large  hotels,  are  favorite  fields  for  their  o[)erations.  Old 
games  which  have  been  exposed  perhaps  a  thousand  times,  arc 
not  unfrequently  successfully  played.  The  Texas,  or  other 
country  merchant  game,  in  Avhich  a  large  shipment  of  goods 
and  an  un^Daid  bill  figures  as  an  excuse,  and  a  borjun  check  is 
the  evidence  of  the  gentility  and  respectibility  of  the  sorely 
vexed  merchant  in  a  strange  city,  while  a  fellow  countr}^  mer- 
chant, or  other  rural  traveler,  is  the  sympathizer,  and  the  vic- 
tim at  last. 

Three-card  monte  men  occasionally  make  their  appearance, 
but  this  class  of  swindlers  are  generally  quickest  spotted,  and 
take  an  early  departure  from  the  city — go  on  a  tour  for  their 
health's  sake. 

Another  class  of  swindlers,  more  difficult  to  deal  Avith,  are 
the  "snide"  merchants.  Two  or  three  respectable  appearing 
men  make  their  appearance  in  the  city,'i3ut  up  at  one  of  the 
first-class  hotels,  and  look  out  for  a  place  suitable  for  their 
purposes.  Cards,  circulars  and  lithographed  letters  are  the 
principal  stock  in  trade.  With  a  commercial  directory  at  hand 
they  commence  operations.  Thousands  of  circulars  are  sent 
out,  lithographed  letters  addressed  to  individuals,  and  other 
interesting  publications  are  forwarded  to  all  the  post-olliccs  in 
the  States  of  the  West.  The  firm  of  Gull,  Swindle  &  Co., 
at  No.  385  Blank  Street,  St.  Louis,  are  liberal  dealers.  They 
assure  those  to  whom  they  addrsss  their  business  circulars  that 
they  have  ample  capital,  and  refer  them  to  ever  so  many  ficti- 
tious firms  in  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltiincn-e,  etc., 
and  assure  them  that  they  mean  business  and  have  i-onie  to 
stay.  Sometimes  these  gentlemen  are  direct  importers  of  cer- 
tain goods ;  sometimes  they  are  commission  merchants  with 

26 


402 


TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


extensive  connections  and  unsurpassed  fticilities  for  handling 
their  produce.  They  solicit  consignments  and  promise  heavy 
cash  advances.  Their  business  is  always  strictly  private,  and 
transacted  in  their  own  offices.  Having  sent  out  their  circulars 
they  await  the  result. 

The  talk  about  swindling  monopolies  and  business  rings 
adroitly  introduced   generally  has   its  effects.     Car   loads  of 


"SSroE"  JEWELRY  SALE. 

butter  and  cheese,  eggs,  fruits,  and  other  country  produce, 
consigned  to  Gull,  Swindle  &  Co.,  begin  to  arrive.  When 
these  have  come  in  quantities  sufficiently  gratifjdng,  and  Gull, 
Swindle  &  Co.  have  disposed  of  their  consignments,  the  firm 
suddenly  disappears,  the  consignors  are  left  to  reflect  on  the- 


WAYS  THAT  AUE  DARK. 


403 


mutability  of  mercantile  honor,  anil  for  their  ffoods  have  irained 
only  experience. 

Another  class  of  "snide"  operators,  who  conduct  business 
temporarily  in  St.  Louis,  arc  jobbers  of  "bankrupt  stocks," 
so  they  announce.  Sometimes  of  one  line,  sometimes  of  many 
lines  of  goods.  "Snide"  jewelry,  and  especially  watches,  are 
favorite  articles  of  traffic  with  them.  A  few  years  ago  three 
Poles,  who,  no  doubt,  were  familiar  with  the  business  methods 


OPEXING  'GREENET'S"  EYES  AFTER  THE  MOCK  AUCTION. 

of  Chatham  Street,  New  York,  opened  "an  immense  stock  of 
gold  and  silver  watches,"  so  they  announced  it,  "from  the 
bankrupt  stock  of  a  celebrated  Parisian  maimfacturer."  For 
a  time  they  did  a  very  satisfactory  business.  In  the  evening 
they  had  an  auction,  "as  the  goods  had  to  be  sold."  Coun- 
trymen came  in,  looked,  were  captivated ,  and  nicely  taken  in. 
We   remembtr   meeting   one    evening  with  a  very  intelligent 


404  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS, 

young  gentleman  from  the  State  of  Mississippi.  He  had  been 
to  the  bankrupt  sale,  and  came  back  to  the  hotel  exulthig  over 
his  purchase  of  six  "heavy  hunting-case  gold  watches,  all 
guaranteed  pure  gold  and  accurate  time-keepers,"  for  which 
he  had  paid  twenty-five  dollars  for  each  "gold  watch."  The 
disgust  exhibited  by  the  young  man,  when  a  friend  examined 
and  pronounced  his  watches  all  "snide,"  can  better  be  imag- 
ined than  described. 

A  few  years  ago  a  very  bold  "land  racket"  was  success- 
fully played  by  a  sharper  in  connection  with  a  notary  public. 
The  swindler  found  a  vacant  room  on  Market  Street,  between 
Third  and  Fourth  streets  ;  paid  a  week's  rent,  furnished  the 
place  with  an  old  table  and  three  or  four  chairs,  and,  with  a 
few  lithograph  plats  of  a  rising  city  to  be  known  as  Vineland, 
about  twelve  miles  from  St.  Louis,  on  the  line  of  the  Toledo, 
Wabash  &  Western  Railway,  a  pile  of  blank  deeds,  and  he 
was  ready  for  business. 

The  next  morning  an  advertisement  appeared  in  all  the  city 
papers,  announcing  that  homesteads  would  be  given  away  in  a 
delightful  suburban  city,  and  inviting  all  mechanics  and  others 
to  call  at  the  office  on  Market  Street  to  learn  full  particulars 
of  "the  unparalleled  opportunity  to  secure  a  home." 

The  place  Avas  literally  thronged  by  an  anxious  and  eager 
crowd  of  home-seekers  at  an  early  hour  next  morning.  The 
explanation  was  simple  and  plausible.  A  wealthy  land-owner, 
whose  name  was  given,  had  concluded  to  found  a  new  town. 
He  owned  a  delightful  site,  and  had  laid  off  a  hundred  acres 
into  lots,  and  streets,  and  parks.  The  lithographed  plat  looked 
charming.  The  lots,  of  course,  were  numbered.  The  great 
want  of  the  new  city  was  inhabitants.  These  it  was  proposed 
to  "induce"  by  giving  away  everi/  alternate  lot.  Two  dollars 
and  a  quarter  would  be  required  to  pay  the  notary's  fees  and 
the  expense  of  recording  the  deeds.  Each  lot-taker  entered 
into  a  written  obligation  to  commence  the  work  of  improve- 
ment within  two  years.  The  deeds  were  then  duly  signed, 
attested,  and  the  would-be  citizen  of  Vineland  paid  his  two 
dollars  and  twenty-five  cents,  taking  a  receipt  for  the  same  ; 
left  his  deed  to  be  sent  to  Illinois  to  be  placed  on  record,  and 


WAYS    THAT    ARE    DAUK.  405 

left  conijratiilatins^  himself  on  account  of  his  jjood  foiiunc  as 
an  early  applicant. 

Two  days  was  this  remarkable  real  estate  office  thronged. 
The  limited  numl)er  of  lots  to  be  given  away,  as  indicated  on 
the  plat,  were  given  away  many  times.  And  still  there  were 
applicants.  The  third  day  came.  The  first  takers  had  called 
with  their  friends  early  in  the  morning,  so  as  to  be  certain. 
By  nine  o'clock  a  crowd  had  collected.  But  no  libci'al  land 
agent  came  ;  the  day  passed  away,  and  still  the  Vinoland  land 
office  was  not  opened.  It  was  never  opened  again.  The  friend 
of  the  people  had  disposed  of  twenty-live  hundred  lots  at  two 
dollars  and  twenty-five  cents  per  lot,  and  had  gone  out  from 
the  city  for  a  day's  rest.  If  he  ever  returned  he  was  not 
recognized.  The  notary  had  made  good  fees,  but  he  fell  into 
difficulty  in  consequence.  The  owner  of  the  land  at  the  pro- 
posed site  of  Vineland  had  not  even  heard  of  the  pro})osition 
to  found  a  city  on  his  estate.  It  was  a  bold  but  successful 
swindle. 

Such  are  some  of  the  ways  of  the  wicked  in  this  great  city. 
Space  will  not  permit  a  further  consideration  of  the  swindles 
of  lesser  importance.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  there  are  a 
good  many  people  who  are  esteemed  as  quite  respectable,  who 
are  advisers  and  backers  of  humbugs  and  share  in  the  gams  of 
the  sharpers  who  run  them.  So  the  honest  men  and  the 
thieves  throng  the  streets  together. 


STREET  ARABS, 


THE  WANDERING  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  OF  ST.  LOUIS. 

Among  all  the  protean  forms  of  misery  that  meet  us  in  the 
alleys  and  by-ways  of  the  great  city,  there  is  none  which 
appeal  so  strongly  and  directly  to  our  sympathies  as  the  sad 
condition  of  destitute  children.  There  is  reason  for  this.  In 
the  case  of  grown  men  and  women,  we  are  able  to  trace  their 
sufFerinjrs  and  sorrows  to  their  own  faults  and  indiscretions. 
But  with  the  boys  and  girls  wandering  through  the  desert 
ways  of  life  the  condition  is  different.  In  almost  every  instance 
their  sufferings  are  vicarious. 

Worthlessness  of  character  in  parents,  immoral  and  drunken 
fathers  and  mothers,  heartless  desertion  of  their  offspring  by 
wicked  people ;  the  death  of  their  natural  protectors,  are 
always  sending  fresh  accessions  of  members  of  the  great  hordes 
of  wandering  Bedouins,  who  roam  about  the  desert  ways  of 
the  great  metropolis.  How  they  live  is  one  of  the  deep 
mysteries  which  we  are  unable  to  solve.  This  we  know,  they 
manage  in  some  way  to  pick  up  a  precarious  sustenance,  and 
to  grow  up  ever  breathing  a  polluted  atmosphere  laden  with  the 
deadly  miasm  of  moral  disease  and  death.  In  St.  Louis,  as 
in  all  great  cities,  these  Arab  tribes  count  their  hundreds,  nay 
thousands.  One  of  the  most  difficult  problems  with  which  the 
student  of  social  science  is  called  upon  to  deal  is  how  to 
reclaim  and  govern  these  juvenile  Ishmaelites. 

The  writer  of  these  pages  has  made  a  personal  examination 
of  the  condition  of  the  unprotected  children,  and  a  careful 
examination  of  the  sources  of  supply  from  which  are  drawn 
the  recruits  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  Arab  bands. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  often  noted  but  never  satisfactorily 
explained,  that  certain  localities,  in  all  large  cities,  without 

[406] 


STREET    ARABS.  407 

apparent  caiiSe,  become  the  haunts  of  vice — the  veriest  plaijue- 
spots  of  iniquity.  What  geographical  or  ethical  reason  exists 
for  the  condition  of  Almond,  Poplar,  and  a  section  of  South 
Main  Street?  Why  should  Sixth  Street  from  Elm  to  Spruce 
streets  prove  so  favorable  for  the  home  of  the  vicious?  What 
reason  can  be  shown  for  the  moral  desolation  which  exists  in 
the  section  of  Lucas  or  Christy  Avenue,  between  Sixth  and 
Eighth  streets?  Can  anv  one  explain  Mhy  there  are  certain 
districts  in  the  city  peopled  almost  exclusively  by  Africans, 
while  there  are  other  districts  in  w^hicli  the  population  is  almost 
exclusively  Bohemian,  while  we  come  to  another  region  in 
which  the  German  people  preponderate,  and  still  in  another 
locality  we  discover  the  inhabitants  to  be  almost  exclusively 
Irish  in  nationality  and  descent?  Who  can  tell  what  occult  law 
exists  for  the  government  of  these  settlements? 

And  so,  too,  in  relation  to  the  recruits  gained  to  the  ranks 
of  the  Arabs — they  almost  all  come  from  certain  Avcll-defined 
localities.  Take  for  instance  the  region  immediately  surrounding 
the  Third  District  police  station,  about  Sixth  and  Seventh 
sti'eets,  from  Wash  Street  north  to  Cass  Avenue  ;  Eighth  Street 
from — well,  say  from  Chouteau  Avenue  to  Cass  Avenue — a  i)art 
of  Ninth  and  Tenth  streets,  and  then  a  considerable  district 
immediately  adjacent  to  the  Biddle  IMarket,  and  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Collins  Street ;  in  fact,  all  that  part  of  the  city  east  of 
Broadway  and  north  of  Cherry  Street,  furnish  a  vast  propor- 
tion of  the  Arab  tribes  of  the  northern  and  central  portions  of 
the  city.  In  the  southern  section  we  may  trace  the  lines  with 
some  distinctness.  South  of  Myrtle  Street  and  east  of  Fourth 
Street,  and  extending  southward  to  Sidney  Street  and  the 
Arsenal,  is  a  favorable  place  for  the  devcloiunent  of  the 
genus  Street  Arab,  both  boys  and  girls.  In  the  northwest 
portion  of  the  city,  "  Kerry  Patch,"  is  a  well-known  region 
haunted  by  the  Arabian  tribes.  Westward,  and  southwest 
there  are  several  localities  in  the  depression  of  Mill  Creek 
Valley  w^hich  furnishes  not  a  few  members  of  the  Arahian 
encampments. 

The  condition  of  hundreds,  and  we  may  safely  say  thou- 
sands, of  young  children  in  St.  Louis,  is  pitiable  in  the 
extreme.     They  know  nothing  of  a  home-life    calculated   to 


408  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

make  them  better.  On  their  pathway  never  a  stray  sunbeam 
falls.  Parents  very  poor,  and  often  dissipated  and  vicious, 
their  homes  are  grimy,  filthy  abodes,  which  must  necessarily 
extinguish  every  lofty  aspiration.  Commencing  bad,  the 
children  of  such  homes  continue  bad  all  through  their  career. 

In  the  neighborhoods  vaguely  indicated  above,  a  compara- 
tively large  number  of  the  children  do  not  attend  school. 
They  are  left  much  to  themselves  ;  neglected  and  abused  at 
home,  they  take  to  the  streets.  The  result  is  not  doubtful. 
They  become  wandering  Arabs  of  the  highways.  Many  par- 
ents are  in  such  circumstances  that  they  can  not  exercise  that 
healthful  guardianship  over  the  morals  of  their  children  that 
they  wish.  While  they  are  at  labor  the  children  are  left  to 
themselves,  and,  of  course,  will  naturally  find  companionship 
among  the  outcast  and  vagabond  children,  and  necessarily  they 
must  come  to  their  level.  So  the  ranks  of  the  Aral)s  are 
recruited.  And  these  juveniles  early  become  acquainted  with  the 
language,  the  propensities,  and  the  skill  of  the  young  vagrant 
sncak-thieves  with  whom  they  come  in  contact.  The  parents, 
as  well  as  the  children,  in  such  cases,  are  to  be  pitied.  The 
stern  necessity  which  compels  them  to  neglect  the  care  and 
moral  training  of  their  offspring,  is  certainly  calculated  to 
excite  our  sympathy  rather  than  provoke  our  reprobation. 

There  is  another  class  of  parents  who  are  too  indolent  and 
too  ignorant  to  care  for  the  true  interests  of  their  children. 
Such  people  always  live  in  the  most  abject  poverty,  and  their 
offspring  can  never  know  what  the  meaning  of  the  word  home 
is  in  its  proper  sense.  What  can  they  become  ?  Only  vagrants, 
tramps,  and  prostitutes. 

The  writer  has  seen  some  of  these  people  ;  there  are  many 
such  in  St.  Louis.  Some  years  ago,  a  family  consisting  of 
husband,  wife,  and  nine  children,  the  oldest  of  whom  was 
scarcely  fifteen  years,  came  from  the  country  to  the  city 
because  they  could  not  make  a  living  on  a  farm.  It  is  sel- 
dom that  such  abject  poverty  is  witnessed  as  was  presented 
by  this  family  of  eleven  persons.  Indolence  scarceh'^  expresses 
the  characteristics  of  the  family.  Laziness,  untidiness,  and 
complete  inertia  characterized  them  all.  But  the  six  boys, 
ranging  from  five  to  twelve  years  in  age,  very  soon  learned  the 


STREET    ARABS. 


400 


ways  of  their  boy-companions,  and  some  of  them  liecame 
unenterprising,  but  very  expert  sneak-thieves.  They  were 
actually  too  indolent  to  be  active  thieves,  but  they  wwc  none 
the  less  successful  on  that  account,  as  thev  were  less  sus- 
l^ected  on  account  of  their  extraordinary  inertia.  The  head  of 
this  famih' was  a 
hale,  stout  man 
of  about  fortv 
years,  and  the 
wife  Avas  a  wo- 
man who  e  n - 
joyed  excellent 
health  and  pos- 
sessed prodigi- 
ous streugth. 
After  living  in 
garrets  a  n  d 
grimy  tenement 
rooms  for  seve- 
ral years,  this 
ftimily  secured 
au  ancient,  tum- 
ble-down c  o  t- 
tage,  or  rather 
hovel,  not  a 
great  way  from 
LindellPark.  It 
was  dreadfully 
out  of  repair,  the 

blinds  were  unhinged,  and  the  window  panes  were  broken, 
and,  in  fact,  the  old  cottage  was  in  the  last  stages  of  decay, 
as  can  be  readily  seen  by  consulting  the  cut  which  is  herewith 
presented. 

Unkempt,  uncombed,  ragged  and  dirty,  the  bovs  of  the 
family,  which  occupied  this  wretched  habitation,  would  do 
nothing ;  indeed,  sought  to  do  nothing.  AVhat  promise  of  a 
man,  useful  in  society,  does  the  ragged,  shock-liead  boy 
represented  in  the  i)icture  give?  Ah  I  indei'd,  what  piomisc? 
That  family  can  never  mount   upward  ;    they  must  for    ever 


410  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

remain  low.  What  though  they  had  the  opportunity,  they  did 
nothing.  No  wonder  there  are  boys  who  are  thieves,  and  girls 
who  have  fallen,  even  at  a  very  tender  age,  to  be  found  among 
such  people. 

The  Street  Arabs  of  both  sexes  in  St.  Louis  are  divided  into 
tribes  or  clans,  and  susceptible  of  a  classification  into  the 
working  Arabs  and  the  thieving,  heathenish  class.  Among  the 
first-named  class  may  be  reckoned  the  boot-blacks,  newspaper 
peddlers,  and  the  corps  of  boys  who  hang  around  to  do  chores 
about  houses,  stores,  shops,  stables,  etc.  Among  the  female 
Bedouins  are  to  be  found  match-sellers,  dealers  in  pins,  needles, 
combs,  etc.,  and  peddlers  of  fruits  and  flowers.  There  are 
few  flower  sellers  in  the  city.  As  for  the  vendors  of  fruits  and 
nuts,  the  dark-eyed  daughters  of  sunny  Italy  almost  monopo- 
lize the  business. 

Then  we  meet  another  class  of  Arabs,  namely,  the  idle  and 
vicious  ones,  who  neither  seek  nor  wish  to  find  employment. 
These  are  the  juvenile  pariahs,  and  are  most  numerous  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Almond,  Poplar,  Plum,  and  a  portion  of 
Third  Street,  and  in  the  nei<>:hborhood  of  Seventh  and  Eiijhth 
streets,  from  Wash  Street  to  O'Fallon  Street,  and  in  the  Avhole 
region  of  the  town  east  of  Broadway  and  north  of  Cherry 
Street.  "  Kerry  Patch  "  is  celebrated  for  its  bands  of  young 
Bedouins. 

In  a  portion  of  the  Seventh  and  Eighth  Street  district, 
mentioned  above,  there  is  a  very  populous  region  peopled 
altogether  by  people  of  color,  most  of  them  of  a  low  and 
degraded  character.  The  darkey  Arab  is  a  genius,  and  can  not 
be  classed  with  any  other  clans  of  wanderers  through  the  desert 
streets  and  alleys  of  the  great  city.  They  constitute  a  class 
by  themselves.  The  lives  led  by  all  classes  of  the  Arabian 
population  of  the  city  is  characteristic  of  the  people  from 
among  whom  they  have  come  out.  How  can  they  live?  Who 
can  tell  ? 

The  bad  boys  and  girls  of  St.  Louis  live  much  in  the  open 
air.  During  the  hot  summer  days,  they  repose  on  the  shaded 
side  of  buildings,  lumber  piles,  and  in  old  outhouses.  In  the 
summer  evenings  the  street  tribes  are  in  their  glory.  Then 
they  come  forth  and  fill  the  streets  and  the  vacant  lots,  and  the 


STREET    ARABS.  411 

various  throngs  fill  the  air  with  their  fearful  clamnr.  Profanity 
and  obscenity  early  become  a  ptirt  of  the  Arabian  character. 
Such  cries,  such  foul  language,  such  volleys  of  oaths,  such 
shouts  and  boisterous  laughter  as  ascend  from  thousands  of 
strong-lunged  children  and  youth  of  both  sexes,  from  every 
vacant  lot  and  old  lumber-yard,  are  seldom  heard  or  dreamed 
of,  away  from  the  city  and  its  tribes  of  Arabs. 

Their  gambols  and  noise  is  kept  up  to  a  late  hour — midni<'-ht 
often  stealing  over  the  city  ere  they  become  still 

For  lodging  places,  in  the  summer  time,  the  street  boys 
are  at  no  loss.  They  crawl  into  basements,  go  into  lumber 
yards,  find  beds  under  old  sheds,  and  often  even  sleep  on  the 
green  sward  of  some  vacant  lot.  Everv  nio-ht  will  find  them 
at  a  different  lodging-place  from  that  which  they  occupied  the 
night  before.  Girls  and  boys  are  often  found  scattered  around 
indiscriminately  through  the  vacant  spaces  of  lumber  yards. 

In  the  winter  season,  the  condition  of  the  Arab  is  certainly 
not  enviable.  Some  of  the  tribes  of  this  class  have  established 
their  headquarters  in  caves,  which  they  have  excavated  in  some 
vacant  lot ;  some  take  possession  of  untenanted  buildings  and 
establish  themselves  in  the  cellars,  where  they  crowd  together 
thick  enough  to  keep  themselves  warm.  The  police  know 
of  more  than  half  a  dozen  caves  excavated  in  favorable  situ- 
ations by  these  street  boys,  which  are  capable  of  accommo- 
dating from  twelve  to  twenty-five  boys  each.  Into  these  sub- 
terranean dens  the  boys  crawl  through  a  small  aperture,  and, 
once  within  the  grimy  cavern,  the  coldest  weather  may  be 
defied. 

It  has  happened  that  a  dozen  or  more  masculine  Ara])s 
have  secured  a  cavernous  abode,  and  taken  a  girl  of  fourteen 
from  her  wretched  home  to  play  the  role  of  housekeeper  for 
the  tribe.  Such  an  establishment  was  broken  up  not  a  great 
while  ago. 

Sometimes  two  clans  of  street  boys  will  disagree,  and  u 
feud  between  them  be  the  result.  Severe  fights  take  place 
between  them,  and  very  often  serious  wounds  are  received  and 
inflicted  by  the  combatants.  Such  feuds  are  perpetuated  for 
years  sometimes. 

Stealing  is  practiced  as  a  fine  art  by  a  large  section  of  tho 


412  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Arabian  tribes.  Gambling  is  a  vice  indulged  in  by  all.  It  is 
the  delight  of  the  Arab,  when  an  opportunity  is  offered  for 
him  to  get  into  the  gallery  of  one  of  the  variety  theatres.  The 
genus  make  excellent  claquers,  to  render  famous  the  latest 
star  clog  dancer,  or  the  most  abbreviated  dressed  female  dan- 
seuse  of  the  variety  boards.  The  applause  they  indulge  in  is 
perfectly  deafening. 

The  problem  of  rescuing  the  street  boys  and  girls  from 
their  career  of  vice  and  crime,  has  often  engaged  the  attention 
of  the  philanthropic  people  of  the  city.  Sometimes  much 
good  has  been  accomi)lished  among  them  by  the  efforts  of 
friends  who  have  established  Mission  Sunday-schools  especially 
for  their  benefit.  The  Newsboys'  Home  is  one  of  the  permanent 
institutions  established  in  their  particular  interest.  In  another 
part  of  this  work  we  give  a  more  specific  account  of  that 
and  other  means  which  have  been  provided  to  assist  in  their 
reformation  and  elevation. 


LIFE  AMONG  THE  LOWLY. 


TENEMENT  PEOPLE  OF  ST.  LOUIS. 

Only  about  one-fifth  of  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Louis,  ac- 
cording to  the  estimates  of  well-informed  persons,  reside  in 
their  own  houses.  Of  course,  then,  four-fifths  are  tenants  in 
houses  belonging  to  other  people.  There  are  several  classes 
or  orders  of  tenement  people.  Our  present  purpose  is  to  deal 
with  only  two  or  three  of  the  lower  orders  of  such  inhabitants. 

Tenement  life  in  St.  Louis  is  certainly  not  as  bad  as  it  is  in 
some  of  the  districts  of  New  York  city,  but,  as  we  shall   see, 


LIFE    AMONG    THE    LOWLY.  413 

it  is  bad  enough  ;  too  bad,  indeed,  for  the  moral  well-being  of 
society. 

There  are  not  a  very  great  number  of  tenement  buildings 
of  vast  extent  in  St.  Louis.  A  few  such  there  are,  and  some 
of  them  arc  wretched  enough  to  make  social  pariahs  of  all  their 
inmates.  If  it  were  not  advertising  them,  we  might  mention 
two  or  three  large  tenement  houses  which  do  credit  to  the 
humanity  and  goodness  of  their  owners  ;  and  then  we  might 
mention  some  large  tenement  houses  that  are  a  disgrace  to  the 
owners  and  cast  a  severe  reflection  on  the  good  name  of  the 
city.  Why  such  nuisances  are  permitted  to  exist  is  more  than 
we  can  tell.  There  are  houses  for  which  their  owners  ask  hijrh 
rents,  which  are  simply  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization.  We 
write  but  the  simple  truth. 

Some  of  the  largest  and  worst  tenement  ])uildings  in  the 
city  are  situated  in  what  is  known  as  the  Third  District,  in  the 
Second  and  Fourth  Wards  of  the  city.  Many  of  these  are 
built  on  back  lots,  and  instead  of  fronting  on  the  street,  they 
look  out  upon  dirty  alleys  that  always  emit  a  loetid  odor.  They 
are  dilapidated,  grimy  and  foul  beyond  our  powers  of  de- 
scription. In  many  of  them  white  and  black  people  are  mixed 
up  promiscuously,  and  somehow  manage  to  eke  out  an  exis- 
tence in  the  midst  of  smells  of  awful  potency. 

The  stranger  visiting  St.  Louis  for  a  few  days  only  is  not 
at  all  likely  to  become  acquainted  with  these  social  pest-houses. 
Some  of  them  belong  to  very  respectable  gentlemen,  who 
dwell  in  stone-front,  plate-glass-windowed  buildings  in  Stod- 
dard's Addition,  and  attend  church  on  Sundays  with  scrupu- 
lous regularity,  and  on  other  days,  Avith  rigid  punctuality, 
they  collect  the  rent  from  the  miserable  tenants  in  the  foul 
houses,  which  poverty  compels  them  to  inhabit. 

A  large  brick  building  on  Eightii  Street,  between  Carrand 
Biddle,  has  been  named  by  the  police  ofticers  "  Castle  Thun- 
der." Taken  altogether,  this  is  one  of  the  worst  tenement 
buildings  in  the  city,  and  its  inhabitants  arc  altogether  as  hard 
a  lot  of  men,  women  and  children,  of  all  nationalities  and 
colors,  as  can  anywhere  be  found.  A  considerable  majority  of 
the  crowded  population  of  the  "  Castle  "  are  colored  people, 
but  white  or  black,  they  are  alike  of  the  most  inferior  class. 


414 


TOT'R    or    ST.    LOUIS. 


KIGHT  SCENE  l.\  VIGlNliy  OF  CASTLE  THUNDER. 


Negro  rousta- 
bouts, white 
vagrants, Avhite 
and  black  wo- 
men without 
deccnc}^  live 
crowded  to- 
gether. "  Fort 
Sumptcr,"  is 
the  name  given 
another  tene- 
ment building, 
little  better  in 
r  e  p  u  t  a  t  i  o  n 
than  ' '  Castio 
Thimder." 

The  scene 
presented  in 
the  cut  is  very 
suggestive  and 
true  to  the  life. 
It  presents  one 
of  the  alleys  or 
foot-ways  in 
the  rear  of 
"  Castle  Thun- 
der." The  old 
woman,  with 
the  Satanic 
face  at  tlio 
window,  has 
resolved  to 
keep  the  old 
man,  who  has 
been  keeping 
late  hours  over 
his  benzine, 
from  entering 
their  palatial 


LITE    AMONG    THE    LOWLY,  415 

home.  A  rain  storm  has  come  up,  and  Iho  old  fellow  liiids 
his  bed  near  the  outlet  of  a  gutter  spout — very  uncomfortable 
indeed.  He  shouts  long  and  loudly  to  the  charmer  inside, 
■who  appears  at  the  window  with  the  angelic  smile  and  soft 
hand  waving,  as  depicted  by  the  artist.  Such  is  life  among 
the  dwellers  in  these  wretched  .slums. 

During  summer  the  hot  stews  of  evil  smells  in  "  Castle 
Thunder"  arc  deserted  for  the  top  of  the  house  and  the  liltK^ 
courts  and  allej^s  about  the  localit3^  Sometimes  hundreds  of 
them  may  be  seen,  representing  both  sexes  and  both  the  white 
and  the  black  races,  slumbering  in  promiscuous  groups  on  the 
house-tops,  and  in  the  court-yard  and  alley-ways.  The  place 
is  exceedingly  unpleasant  in  rainy  weather. 

Not  far  from  these  buildings,  in  the  same  district,  that  is 
on  the  block  enclosed  by  the  lines  of  Seventh  and  Eighth 
streets,  and  Wash  and  Carr  streets,  are  situated  a  number  of 
three  and  some  four-story  buildings,  on  the  alleys  Avhich  in- 
tersect the  block.  This  spot  was  once  noted  in  police  par- 
lance as  "  The  Cross  Ke3^s,"  on  account  of  the  existence  of 
two  alleys,  extending  half  way  across  the  block  from  Carr 
Street,  and  because  the  alleys  made  an  offset  at  the  point  of 
intersection  in  the  center  of  the  l)lock.  The  large  building  on 
the  southeast  corner  of  these  alleys  is  generally  full.  It  is 
possible  that  some  of  the  inhabitants  are  simply  decent,  but 
unfortunate  people.  But  the  major  jiart  of  the  people  who 
make  this  locality  their  home,  are  un(]uestional)ly  only  raised 
a  little  above  the  wild  Indians  of  the  plains.  In  point  of 
morality  the  Indians  have  a  decided  advantage. 

Few  people  accustomed  to  read  the  St.  Louis  city  journals 
do  not  remember  some  incident  in  the  annals  of  the  police 
force,  in  which  the  scene  is  laid  in  Clabber  Alley,  or  in  Wild 
Cat  Chute.  These  are  notorious  tenement  alleys,  in  which  the 
worst  classes  of  both  sexes  are  residents. 

It  is  difhcult  to  draw  the  lines  of  distinction  between  the 
ffood  and  the  bad,  the  innately  vicious  and  wicked  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  unhappy  victims  of  misfortune  on  the  other, 
when  we  come  to  deal  with  the  inhabitants  of  these  wretched 
localities.  In  some  instances,  undouljtedly,  some  of  tlu'inhab- 
itauts  of  these  neighborhoods  are  simply  victims  of  misfortune  ; 


416 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


A    BY-COUKT-CLABBEK   ALLEY. 


ill  other  cases, 
those  who  ten- 
ant these  foul 
and  grimy 
places  are, 
without  doubt, 
willfully  vic- 
ious. They  are 
outcasts  by  na- 
ture. They 
would  not  have 
better  quarters 
than  such  as 
are  afforded  in 
the  neighbor- 
hoods which 
we  have  indi- 
cated. And 
these  are  bad 
enough  quar- 
ters in  all  con- 
science. 

In  Collins 
Street,  and  all 
along  the  dis- 
trict Ijnngeast 
of  Broadway, 
there  are  mul- 
titudes of  ten- 
ants who  are 
in  a  wretched 
state  of  pover- 
ty. The  fault 
of  these  peo- 
ple, as  a  gen- 
eral thing,  is 
the  love  of 
strong  drink, 
which     they 


LIFE    AMONG    THE    LOWLY.  417 

indulge  to  an  inordinate  extent.  From  Franklin  Avomio 
to  Cass  Avenue,  and  from  Eighth  Street  to  Sixteenth  Street, 
there  exists  a  very  populous  region,  in  which  householders 
and  tenants  dwell  together.  The  people  in  this  district 
arc  in  a  much  better  condition  than  are  the  dwellers  in  the 
tenement  houses  east  of  Eighth  Street.  There  arc  many  per- 
sons in  this  part  who  own  their  own  houses,  and  many  othcis 
who  arc  well-to-do  mechanics  and  workingmen,  who  desire  to 
live  in  a  better  style  and  a  more  isolated  manner  than  they 
could  in  a  great  tenement  house. 

But  in  this  district  there  are  a  very  large  number  of  tenants 
who  live  in  the  most  wretched  condition,  in  the  midst  of  the 
direst  poverty,  and  whose  children  are  growing  up  to  acquaint- 
ance with  every  form  of  vice.  There  are  sinks  of  ini(|uity  in 
the  district  named  that  rival  any  similar  localities  in  any  East- 
ern city.  From  among  the  girls  brought  up  in  such  regions, 
victims  for  the  assignation  houses  and  tenants  for  the  houses 
of  shame  are  sought  and  found.  The  bo3^s  in  many  instances 
become  sneak-thieves,  find  their  way  to  houses  of  correction, 
and  eventually  become  the  thieves  and  murderers  who  popu- 
late our  State  Prison. 

In  various  sections  of  the  city  are  to  be  seen  whole  tracks 
of  land  thickly  built  up  with  the  most  wretched  habitations 
imaginable.  These  are  mere  shanties,  erected  by  poor  people 
on  land  not  their  own,  upon  which  they  have  constructed  their 
dwellings  without  the  leave  or  license  of  the  owner  of  the  soil. 
The  largest  and  best  known  settlement  of  this  character  is  the 
Kerry  Patch  settlement.  A  few  years  ago  a  much  larger  area 
of  land  Avas  covered  by  the  shanties  than  at  jiresent.  The 
Kerry  people  have  not  succeeded  in  establishing  lor  themselves 
an  enviable  reputation  for  amiability.  On  the  contrary,  they 
are  esteemed  to  be  rather  pugnacious.  As  a  general  thing 
the  citizens  of  Kerry  Patch  are  laboring  men,  who,  for  the 
price  of  a  couple  of  months'  rent  of  rooms,  have  obtained  the 
material  with  which  they  constructed  dwellings,  which  have 
served  them  and  their  families   for  five,  six  and  seven  years. 

The  shanties  are  not  always  kept  in  the  best  of  repair,  as 
will  readily  be  seen  by  examining  the  accompanying  cut  of  a 
first-class  Kerry  Patch  residence.     The  hinges  of  the  windows 

J87 


418 


TOUR    OF   ST.    LOUTS. 


|\\%\\\1\^^|T|1|I 


are  often  broken,  the  doors  down,  and  bundles  of  rags  often 
do  service  to  keep  the  wind  from  circulating  too  freely,  be- 
cause of  broken  window  panes.     The  people  of  Kerry  Patch 

are  poor,  but 
independent. 
Their  chief 
amusements 
cousistin  punch- 
ing each  other's 
eyes,  occasion- 
ally battering  up 
a  "peeler," 
yclept  police- 
man, and  in 
dog-fights  and 
cocking  mains 
on  Sundays. 
They  are  quite 
religiously  in- 
clined, and  be- 
stow great  rev- 
erence on  tho 
pastor  of  the 
parish  in  which 
they  live.  Tru- 
ly,   neither  the 

A  KERRY  PATCH  RESIDENCE.  mCU       nor        tllO 

women  are  the  most  tidy  in  dress  and  lovely  in  manner 
that  could  be  conceived  of,  but  they  arc  a  ver}^  animated 
people  when  they  are  moved  to  wield  the  "  shtick  or  hurl  the 
stone." 

What  joy  can  such  homes  give  to  those  who  spend  a 
wretched  existence  within  these  miserable  abodes?  And  yet 
on  Sundays  and  holidays  these  poor  wretches  go  abroad  and 
engage  in  pastimes,  and  talk  as  cheerfully  and  laugh  as  lightly 
as  though  they  were  dwellers  in  marble  halls.  Alas  !  their 
sensibilities  require  no  higher  enjoyment  than  is  afforded 
them,  even  in  the  midst  of  their  wretchedness. 


MYSTIC  ST.  LOUIS. 


ASTROLOGERS  AND  OTHER  PROFESSORS  OF 
OCCULT  ARTS. 

Not  very  long  ago  a  number  of  gentlemen  met  in  a  place 
of  public  resort.  The  conversation  turned  upon  the  possibilitj 
of  spiritual  and  supernatural  influences  acting  upon  the  human 
organism,  to  the  extent  of  making  a  revelation  of  things  which 
the  passive  ajrent  could  not  have  known  before.  Amouir  tho 
company  was  a  highly  respectable,  very  zealous,  but  not  a 
very  intelligent  or  wise  professor  of  the  orthodox  Christian 
faith,  who  stoutly  maintained  that  witches,  wizards,  and  other 
devil-inspired  persons,  had  always  existed,  and  yet  dwelt  upon 
the  earth.  He  had  learned  from  the  Bible  that  necromancers 
and  witches  and  wizards,  and  people  possessed  of  devils,  lived 
in  ancient  days,  and  why  not  now?  And  the  question  waa 
pertinent.  If  there  were  such  persons  in  existence  at  any 
time  in  the  past,  there  is  no  reason  that  they  might  not  have 
successors.  This  gentleman  contended  that  the  Devil  was  as 
potent  now  as  in  the  days  of  Saul  and  the  woman  of  Endor, 
and  there  was  neither  science  nor  good  sense  in  rejecting  the 
belief  in  witches,  wizards  and  such  like  persons,  who  belong 
exclusively  to  the  Devil.  True,  there  is  a  marked  diflerence 
in  the  character  of  Milton's  Satan  and  Gothe's  Mcphistopheles, 
and  these  in  turn  must  have  a  very  ditTcrent  charaotei-  from 
that  Avhich  the  Christian  Darwinians  have  evolved.  Milton's 
Satan  is  a  debased  intellect,  w^ith  boundless  ambition,  a  sui)er- 
natural  bemg,  who  has  lost  the  vulgar  flesh  and  bone,  horn 
and  hoof  character  of  the  .Jewish  Rabbis  and  Christian  fathers. 
Gothe's  Mcphistopheles  is  the  incarnation  of  our  complicated 
modern  social  evils,  full  of  mean,  petty  tricks  and  K^arncd  (pio- 
tations  ;  he  piously  turns  up  his  eyes,  he  lies,  he  doubts,  ho 

[419J 


MYSTIC    ST.    LOUIS.  421 

calumniates,  seduces,  philosophizes,  sneers,  but  all  in  a  polite 
and  educated  way,  since  he  is  a  scholar,  a  theologian,  a  politi- 
cian and  a  diplomatist. 

The  Darwinian  devil  lately  evolved  from  the  super-scien- 
tific brain  of  modern  thinkers,  is  altogether  another  sort  of 
character.  He  is  unlike  any  other  devil  before  known  to  the 
sages  and  theologians  of  the  world.  It  may  l)c  in  order  to 
express  some  doubt  as  to  the  capacity  of  tliis  devil  to  serve  as 
master  and  instructor  of  our  professors  of  occult  sciences. 

This  Darwinian  devil  evolved  himself  from  the  protophism 
of  ignorance.  Of  course  then  this  devil  was  in  process  of 
development  through  countless  cycles,  and  in  the  gloomv  fog 
of  fear  and  superstition,  he  grew  by  degrees  from  a  rudely 
formed  but  doubtless  an  originally  ugly  toadstool,  throu<di 
all  the  gradations  up  to  the  horrible  monster  which  human 
fears  have  painted  him.  To  the  prehistoric  man  of  Kansas 
he  must  have  appeared  as  a  gigantic  grasshopper,  or  Rocky 
Mountain  locust,  and  in  various  lands  this  Darwinian  devil 
must  have  assumed  many  shapes.  He  is  the  Protean  devil 
after  all.  This  reptile  devil,  the  owl  devil,  raven,  dog,  wolf, 
lion.  Centaur,  monkey,  elephant,  and  the  most  uncouth  of  all 
devils,  the  Dagon-dcvil,  once  worshiped  in  Palestine,  a  sort  of 
half  man  and  half  fish  monster,  which  was  doubtless  only  one 
of  the  stages  through  which  the  Darwinian  devil  passed  in  the 
cycles  of  his  evolution.  Now,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  Darwinian  devil  has  passed  through  more  forms  and  con- 
sequently must  possess  a  more  universal  character  than  any 
other  devil  known  to  history.  But  is  that  any  evidence  of  his 
fitness  to  play  the  role  of  head-master  in  the  occult  schools  of 
our  city?  To  our  mind,  Gothe's  devil  is  the  greatest  cheat, 
liar  and  fraud  of  any  one  of  the  family  whose  history  has  yet 
been  written  ;  and  being  a  gentleman  and  a  scholar,  it  seems 
only  reasonable  that  he  should  inspire  the  distinguished  men 
and  women  who  are  able  to  make  revelations  concerning  the 
past  and  the  future  of  a  stranger's  history. 

We  beg  pardon  of  our  readers  for  this  brief  treatise  on  the 
members  of  the  devil  family,  but  inasmuch  as  we  are  treating 
of  a  class  of  people  who  are  popularly  sui)posed  to  be  under 
the  continual  control  of    a  sort  of  infernal  schoolmaster,  it 


422  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

was  deemed  best  to  describe  different  sorts  of  devils  in 
order  that  our  readers  might  reach  a  safe  conclusion  as  to 
which  of  them  acts  the  role  of  head-master  to  our  occult 
academies,  where  men  and  women  learn  the  art  of  unraveling 
the  web  of  destiny  for  any  willing  to  pay  them  a  dollar  or  two. 
The  pupils  of  these  institutes  are  to  be  found  nearly  every- 
where in  the  city. 

Of  professional  astrologists,  fortune-tellers  and  mediums 
of  various  kinds,  there  are  in  St,  Louis  no  less  than  one  hun- 
dred, and  it  is  believed  that  all  these  make  a  comfortable 
sustenance  for  themselves  by  the  practice  of  their  profession. 
Some  make  large  incomes. 

If  we  were  advertising  the  business  of  such  charlatans,  we 
might  describe  the  apartments  of  a  certain  professor  of  occult 
science,  who  advertises  himself  as  the  world-renowned  Dr. — 
well,  we  will  say  Dot.  But  that  is  not  our  mission.  We  may 
say  that  Dr.  Dot  has  a  finely  furnished  suite  of  apartments  in 
a  fashionable  part  of  the  city  ;  that  he  dresses  exceedingly 
well  ;  that  he  is  admitted  into  social  circles  which  claim  to  be 
quite  exclusive.  Dr.  Dot  has  another  office  in  an  unfashion- 
able part  of  the  city,  which  is  under  the  direction  of  an  assist- 
ant. Dr.  Dot  advertises  in  distant  papers — can  be  consulted 
by  mail,  and  will  reveal  the  secrets  of  life  to  the  inquirer. 
His  mail  is  sent  to  the  office  in  the  unfashionable  street — and 
to  a  name  his  fashionable  friends  do  not  know.  His  patrons 
are  often  people  of  wealth,  and  it  is  said  that  Doctor  Dot's 
income  exceeds  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year.  He  claims  to  be 
an  astrologer.  He  is  a  man  of  fair  education,  agreeable  man- 
ners, and  altogether,  he  is  well  calculated  to  win  his  way  in 
society,  especially  when  he  has  the  reputation  of  being  a 
gentleman  of  fortune,  with  sufficient  secure  investments  to 
return  him  a  good  income.  The  Doctor  always  visits  his 
ini fashionable  office  after  night  and  looks  over  his  mail  and 
directs  his  correspondence. 

Being  a  gentleman  of  popular  manners,  and  well  provided 
for  in  funds.  Dr.  Dot  finds  means  of  doing  his  friends  and 
associates  out  of  many  hundreds  of  dollars  in  the  course  of  a 
year.  His  game  is  as  follows  :  Once  in  the  rotunda  of  one  of 
our  fashionable  hotels,  Dr.  Dot,  who  does  not  pass  under  that 


MYSTIC    ST.    LOUIS.  423 

name  in  the  beau  monde,  was  telling  a  company  of  admiiino- 
friends.,  with  more  cash  than  scn.se,  abont  a  strange  adventure 
he  had  passed  through  at  a  recent  period.  He  had  lost  his 
elegant  chronometer  ;  he  was  distressed  about  it ;  he  heard  of 
the  great  Dr.  Dot  accidentally  through  a  friend.  He  concluded 
to  consult  him.  He  had  some  diflSculty  in  finding  his  olKce. 
The  Professor  at  once  told  him  who  had  his  watch,  and  how 
he  was  to  proceed  in  order  to  recover  it.  He  followed  the 
direction  given,  and  had  the  happiness  of  repossessing  his 
watch  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours.  It  was  all  very  strange 
to  him.  Really  he  could  not  tell  where  the  Professor  held 
forth,  but  it  was  on  such  and  such  a  street,  near  to  such 
another  street,  but  indeed  he  was  not  good  in  rcmemberinff 
numbers — for  the  life  of  him  could  not  remember  the  number 
of  the  Professor's  house.  The  Professor  well  understands 
that  the  curiosity  of  his  hearers  will  prompt  them  to  pay  a  visit, 
and  then  he  well  knows  that  through  information  given  by 
himself,  his  brother  or  nephew,  who  plays  projihet  at  the  office, 
will  know  how  to  bleed  the  fine  gentlemen  friends  of  his  other 
character.  Dr.  Dot,  the  astrologist,  pockets  the  larger  portion 
of  the  cash  which  has  stimulated  sundry  persons  to  spend 
while  in  his  other  character  as  Major  Blank,  the  easv-goin<»- 
gentleman  of  competency  and  fortune.  Dr.  Dot  and  his 
associates  belong  to  the  higher  class  of  astrologists.  He  is 
the  outside  man  in  St.  Louis,  while  in  the  Cincinnati  cstal>- 
lishment,  which  the  firm  operates,  the  genial,  pleasant  Major 
Blank  is  the  veiled  prophet. 

There  is  still  another  class  of  humbugs  of  this  species, 
namely,  the  world-renowned  jSIadame  de  Plesses,  and  Lotties, 
and  Annas,  and  Coras,  who  advertise  their  business  in  the 
local  journals,  and  have  apartments  in  ostcnsii)ly  rcsi)ectable 
boarding-houses.  These,  for  the  most  part,  claim  to  be  lately 
from  Paris  or  Berlin,  or  Madrid,  Vienna,  St.  Petersburg,  or 
London,  and  are  not  unfrequently  announced  as  seventh 
daughters  of  seventh  daughters.  These  are  peripatetics,  and 
are  irenerally  accompanied  by  an  agent  of  the  masculine  sex. 
Sometimes  those  who  advertise  as  fortune-tellers  and  clairvoy- 
ants and  mediums,  are  no  more  immoral  in  character  than 
other  classes  of  advertising  humbugs  ;  but  there  are  many  of 


424  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

these  wandering  fortune-tellers  who  use  the  profession  as  a 
pretext,  while  they  act  as  agents  in  recruiting  young  girls  for 
houses  of  shame  in  other  cities.  The  fallen  wretches  of  St. 
Louis  have  their  agents  in  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  and  other 
places,  while  recruits  are  sought  in  this  city  for  the  bagnios  of 
those  centers  of  population. 

The  clairvoyant  mediums  have  been  so  often  described 
that  we  deem  it  unnecessary  to  devote  much  time  or  space  to 
them  in  these  pages.  Spiritualistic  circles  exist  in  consider- 
able numbers  in  St.  Louis,  and  one  might  be  present  at  a 
seance  any  evening,  if  he  so  desired.  Trance  mediums  are 
tolerably  numerous,  besides  the  mediums  Avho  come  from 
other  localities  to  expound  the  doctrines  of  spiritual  commu- 
nication, and  act  as  mediums  through  which  the  disembodied 
spirits  may  communicate  with  their  friends  who  are  yd  in  the 
material  tenements.  Of  course  these  seances  are  exhausting, 
perhai)S  because  of  the  reluctance  of  the  ethereal  beings  to 
quit  the  perfect  peace  and  happiness  of  the  summcrland  even 
for  a  brief  space,  and  therefore  the  medium  generally  assures 
the  recipients  of  other-world  communications  that  gifts  in 
cash  are  well-pleasing  in  the  sight  of  the  spirits,  hence  their 
desire  for  filthy  lucre,  not  that  the  medium  cares,  of  course 
not,  but  because  of  the  reluctance  of  the  disembodied  to 
answer  calls  made  by  persons  of  a  sordid  disposition. 

Many  of  the  female  fortune-tellers  who  employ  cards,  and 
palmistry  and  cofiee  and  tea  grounds  in  casting  the  horoscope 
of  those  who  consult  them,  are  grossly  ignorant,  and  can 
practice  their  art  only  among  the  poor  and  ignorant  classes, 
over  whom,  it  must  be  owned,  they  exercise  an  immense 
influence. 

The  largest  number  of  patrons  of  these  professors  of  the 
gifts  of  prophecy  and  second  sight,  and  spiritual  inspiration, 
are  women  and  girls,  principally  belonging  to  the  lower  classes. 
Servant  girls  desire  to  know  how  their  beaux  feel  affected 
toward  them,  and  whether  they  are  sincere,  and  Avhen  they 
may  expect  to  have  their  bridal  trousseau  ready,  and  many 
other  things.  But  these  are  not  the  only  people  who,  like 
Saul  of  old,  desire  to  consult  the  necromancers  and  women 
with    familiar   spirits.       Superstition   is   a   plant   that   often 


I 


METROPOLITAN  VAGABONDS.  425 

flourishes  as  luxuriantly  in  the  palace  as  in  the  hovel.  Sonio 
of  the  best  patrons  of  the  professors  of  occult  knowleth'c  aro 
persons  of  high  social  standing,  who,  like  Micodenius,  seek 
information  by  night.  Ladies  of  wealth,  and  shrewd  business 
men,  alike  consult  them. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  some  of  these  old  hao-s  who 

o 

assume  to  forecast  the  future  are  very  wicked  i)ers()ns  ;  that 
they  are  only  procuresses  in  disguise,  and  are  capable  of  any 
crime.  That  they  accomplish  much  evil,  there  is  no  room  for 
a  doubt.  Such  as  are  not  positively  bad  are  humbugs  at  best, 
and  only  the  grossly  ignorant  and  superstitious  are  their 
patrons.  Such  are  the  features  of  Mystic  St.  Louis,  which 
our  readers  will  appreciate. 


METROPOLITAN  VAGABONDS. 


THE  PECULIAKITIES  OF  CITY  TRAMPS. 

The  genus  tramp  is  of  modern  origin — an  outgrowth  or 
excrescence  of  a  diseased  condition  of  the  social  body.  Be- 
tween the  rural  tramp  and  the  city  vagabond  there  is  only  the 
likeness  which  exists  between  well-marked  varieties  of  the 
same  species.  The  one  prefers  the  l)road  fields,  the  lanes,  the 
bountiful,  if  coarse,  fare  obtainable  at  the  wayside  farm-house. 
The  other  does  not  fancy  walking  on  country  highways  ;  they 
arc  cither  too  muddy  or  too  dusty  for  his  metro[)olitan  tread. 
Nor  does  our  fastidious  city  vagabond  relish  the  homely  fare 
of  the  sturdy  agriculturists.  He  infinitely  prefers  dainty 
scraps  of  steak  and  shreds  of  tender  spring  lamb,  and  some- 
times the  but  half-picked  bones  of  the  spring  chicken,  which 
come  from  the  talkie  of  the  city  gentleman.  Indeed,  your 
genuine  city  vagrant  has  the  tastes  of  an  epicure  and  the 
appetite  of  a  gourmand.  These  refined  propensities  can  not 
be  so  well  gratified  among  the  grangers.     Another  cause  of 


426  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

his  aversion  to  country  life  is  the  provoking  ease  with  which 
the  toil-worn  wealth-producers  of  the  rural  regions  manage  to 
find  something  for  him  to  do — some  job  which  will  afford  him 
an  opportunity  to  earn  his  porridge.  If  there  is  one  thing  in 
all  the  world  fully  calculated  to  fill  the  soul  of  the  genuine 
vagabond  Avith  unutterable  disgust,  surely  it  is  the  fact  that 
there  there  is  work  for  him  to  do.  Death  in  its  most  horrible 
form  would  not  aff*ect  his  delicate  sensibilities  much  more. 
Therefore,  it  is,  that  our  high-toned  city  vagabond  avoids  v/ith 
reliofious  ftiithfulness  the  demoralizing  influence  of  labor ; 
hence  he  ventures  as  little  as  possible  into  the  country. 

Your  city  vagabond  is  often  a  man  of  extensive  information. 
He  reads  the  newspapers  ;  knows  Avhat  is  going  on  in  political 
circles  ;  keeps  posted  in  regard  to  the  movements  of  actors 
and  actresses  ;  and  has  no  objection  to  giving  his  opinion  con- 
cerning the  musical  proficiency  of  the  different  yourig  ladies 
and  gentlemen  who  took  part  in  the  last  fashionable  amateur 
concert. 

And,  in  truth,  many  of  them  are  really  persons  who  have 
filled  honorable  stations  in  life — some  of  them  arc  classical 
ischolars.  We  have  met  graduates  of  Harvard  and  Yale, 
the  University  of  Virginia,  and  other  first-grade  American 
institutions  of  learning ;  and  once  knew  a  ragged,  penniless 
vagrant,  who  carried  with  him  the  credentials  of  a  Fellow  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  possessed  a  facility  in  Greek 
composition  which  would  have  astonished  an  American  college 
president.  Another  city  vagrant,  Avho  was  once  a  frequenter 
of  the  saloons  of  St.  Louis,  Avas  the  Avearer  of  a  high  literary 
degree,  obtained  from  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  Avas  a 
linguist  thoroughly  versed  in  the  classics,  the  Italian,  Spanish, 
French  and  German  languages.  Of  course  these  Averc  ex- 
ceptional cases,  and  all  of  them  Avere  persous  Avho  had  seen 
better  days;  men  Avho  had  no  future  before  them,  and  made 
no  effort  to  regain  the  high  station  from  Avhich  they  had 
descended.  This  class  of  city  vagabonds  never  leave  unless  it 
be  to  make  an  effort  to  reach  another  city.  The  country  to 
them  Avould  be  unendurable. 

Another  class  of  vagrants  occupy  the  boundary  betAveen 
helpless  vagrancy  and  downright  sneak-thieving.      They  are 


METKOPOLITAN    VAGABONDS. 


427 


men  rude  jind  unlettered,  with  ii  strong  propensity  de^^eloped 
to  avoid  all  kinds  of  niannid  lahor,  and  they  are  fitted  for 
nothing  else.  These  are  generally  found  loafing  about  l>ar- 
roonis  and  on  street  eorners.  They  have  the  same  aversion  to 
the  eountry  notice*]  among 
other  classes.  They  know 
nothing  of  country  life, 
and  the}'  long  ago  resolved 
that  they  would  not  knoAV 
if  they  could. 

Still  another  class  ot 
vagabonds  are  met  with  in 
the  great  city.  These  are 
generally  young  men  who 
use  the  slang  of  the  slums, 
and  who  lounge  around 
particular  p  1  a;  c  e  s  ,  and 
make  raids  in  the  night 
time.  They  are  techni- 
callv  called  loafers,  young 
roughs,  engaged  ni  learn- 
ing the  shortest,  easiest, 
and  quickest  way  into  the 
State's  prison.  Talk  to 
them  about  work  in  the 
country  ?  AVhy ,  they  would 
not  undertake  to  do  an 
honest  day's  Avork  for  all 
the  wages  paid  the  best 
Avorkman,  for  a  week's 
Avages.  Go  to  Avork  !  No  ; 
nothing  of  that  kind  for 
them.  Mention  a  job  to 
them  and  they  will  assume 
an  insulting  attitude,  and 

in  an  ofFensive  tone  inquire  '•  What  d'ye  soy? 
the  Avorst  of  all  A'agrants. 

The  rural  tramp  sometimes  comes  to  the  city,  for  he  is  an 
experienced  traveler,  and  makes  himself  at  home  in  any  place. 


GENUS  TKAMP. 


These  are 


428  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  accompanying  portrait  is  one  of  a  country  tramp,  tempo- 
rarily inhabiting  the  city.  During  their  stay  they  lodge  in 
lumher-yards  and  vacant  lots,  in  suburban  districts,  and  manage 
to  pick  up  a  living,  which  keeps  them  in  very  good  physical 
condition.  The  fellow-citizen  of  America,  so  accurately 
depicted  by  the  artist  presents  an  appearance  of  physical  thrift 
very  much  out  of  keeping  with  his  apparent  social  environ- 
ments. 

This  work  is  not  intended  as  a  statistical  production,  hence 
we  have  not  taken  the  pains  to  ascertain  the  precise  number  of 
vagabonds  and  tramps  constantly  present  in  the  city.  It  is  safe 
to  sa}',  however,  that  they  may  be  enumerated  by  the  thousand. 
And  Avhat  can  be  done  with  tiiem?  Ah!  that  is  a  question. 
Social  science  congresses  debate  it,  and  closet-students  study 
their  peculiarities,  and  theorize  concerning  their  condition  and 
the  causes  which  produced  them.  We  have  our  own  views, 
too,  and  those  views  arc  clearly  and  sharply  outlined,  but  this 
is  not  the  place  for  their  ventilation.  AVe  deal  only  Avith  the 
fact.  The  tramps  arc  here,  and  so  arc  the  vagrants,  and  they 
are  likely  to  remain  here. 

Day  after  day  and  week  after  week  they  come  and  go, 
from  the  city  to  the  country,  and  from  the  country  to  the  city. 
And  the  vagabonds  are  here,  in  their  environments,  and  hero 
they  remain,  and  will  remain.  What  can  be  done  about  it? 
Society  must  bear  the  burden  of  their  maintenance.  If  society 
is  partly  responsible  for  their  presence,  society  pays  the 
penalty  with  costs,  for  society  is  wholly  chargeable  with  their 
support. 

In  winter  time  the  tramps  and  vags  must  have  "  shelter 
and  grub."  They  come  to  the  city  in  crowds.  The  soup- 
house  was  their  home,  a  bunk  their  bed  last  winter,  and  luny 
be  the  next.  In  summer  time  the  tramp  is  quite  an  indc[)cn- 
dent  character.  In  the  evenings  he  can  retiic  to  a  secluded 
lumber-yard,  and  slumber  the  night  aAvay.  Then,  the  city 
vagabond  finds  a  comfortable  place  in  the  all-night  houses.  He 
gets  his  drinks,  too,  and  the  bar-keeper  generally  gets  his  pay. 
The  city  vagabond  is  cunning.  At  early  dawn  he  comes  forth 
from  his  night  refuge,  and  begins  maneuvering  for  his  morning 
drink.     He  meets  a  benevolent-looking  stranger,  and  at  once 


GHOULS    OF    TIIE    CEMETERIES.  429 

invites  him  to  furnish  him  a  drink.  He  is  generally  successful. 
The  man  who  Avould  refuse  to  give  a  dime  will  not  refuse  a 
thirsty  mortal  a  dram.  He  invites  the  tramp  to  the  nearest 
bar-room,  and  tells  the  barman  to  give  the  fellow  a  drink,  at 
the  same  time  throwing  the  requisite  amount  of  cash  on  the 
counter.  With  profuse  thanks  our  vagabond  gentleman  pours 
out  a  full  glass  and  tosses  it  oft".  If  he  linds  any  one  willing 
to  talk,  or  rather  to  listen,  he  Avill  become  garrulous,  and  tell 
the  listening  by-standers  of  his  former  state  and  greatness. 

Day  after  day,  the  same  method  is  pursued,  the  tramp 
changing  his  locality  as  often  as  may  be  deemed  necessary. 
He  goes  upon  the  principle  that  it  is  best  not  to  "  wear  out  his 
welcome."  But,  he  must  live  and  he  must  have  his  drinks; 
and  though  he  does  not  and  will  not  work,  yet,  after  all,  society 
supports  him.  He  will  live,  and  flourish  too  ;  and  there  is  no 
method  yet  discovered  by  which  he  can  be  prevented  from 
doing  so.     They  are  ever 

"  The  hollow  orbs  of  movinj^  oirnimslance 
Rolled  round  by  one  Hxed  law." 


GHOULS  OF  THE  CEMETERIES. 


THE  GHASTLY  TRAFFIC  IN  CORPSES  FOR  DIS- 
SECTING-ROOMS. 

The  repose  of  the  remains  of  the  dead  in  the  narrow  tene- 
ments of  earth  to  which  loving  hands  have  consigiuMl  them, 
cjui  not  l)e  assured  in  this  venal  nge.  Schools  of  i'listruction 
in  medical  science  require  subjects  for  dissection,  and  there 
are  always  to  be  found  ghoulish  men  ready  to  supply  the 
demand.  In  truth  it  is  a  ghastly  commerce,  and  yet  there 
have  been  many  persons  engaged  in  it  in  St.  Louis.  Perhaps 
there  is  not  so  much  grave-robbing  carried  on  at  present  as 


430  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

there  was  some  years  ago.  A  law  of  the  State  of  Missouri 
authorizes  the  physicians  in  charge  of  public  hospitals  to  give 
to  the  various  medical  schools  the  unclaimed  bodies  of  such 
of  the  unfortunates  as  may  die  in  hospitals.  Since  the  pas- 
sao-e  of  that  act,  the  business,  technically  known  as  body- 
snatching,  or  crave-robbing,  has  very  much  fallen  off.  But 
still  it  has  not  been  abandoned,  and  many  a  body  is  exhumed 
in  the  quiet  precincts  of  Bellefontaine,  Calvary,  Picker's,  Holy 
Trinit}^  St.  Peter's,  and  other  cities  of  silence  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  great  city. 

It  may  be  that  the  disembodied  spirits  of  the  departed 
ones  take  no  interest  in  the  earthy  forms — the  chrysalis — from 
which  they  have  escaped.  But  the  living  honor  the  dust  of 
the  dead,  and  cherish  the  sod  beneath  which  the  beloved  foims 
are  mouldering  as  a  sacred  shrine,  where  the  heart  worshipeth 
the  memory  of  the  lost ;  where  they 

"Contemplate,  all  alone, 
The  life  that  had  been  theirs  below, 
And  lix  the  tlioiights  on  all  the  glow 
To  which  the  Crescent  would  have  grown." 

For  this  reason  the  human  mind  naturally  recoils  from  the 
matter  of  fact  way  with  which  science  is  required  to  deal  with 
the  tenement  of  the  soul  when  once  the  living  spark  has 
fled.  Hence,  also,  our  horror  at  the  idea  of  making  mer- 
chandise of  the  mortal  remains  of  those  we  knew  and  loved 
during  their  career  in  time.  We  can  not  forget  thetu  ;  and 
although  all  that  remains  of  them  is  but  dust,  there  is  a 
measure  of  sad  satisfaction  in  the  knowledge  we  have  con- 
cerning the  place  where  that  sacred  dust  has  been  deposited. 
We  can  not  help  it  if  we  become  melancholy  when  we  con- 
template the  universal  reign  of  death.  In  such  mood  we  know 
that 

"Tears  from  the  depth  of  some  divine  despair 

Rise  in  the  heart  and  gather  to  the  e\es." 

In  such  frame  of  mind  we  very  naturally  entertain  senti- 
ments of  extreme  aversion  toward  the  choul-like  human  bcinj]: 
who  would  seek  the  hallowed  precincts  of  the  ceiuetery  and 
diir  down  into  the  narrow  o-rave  and  dras'  from  its  dark  abode 
the  clav-cold  forms  of  our  beloved  ones. 


GHOULS    OF    THE    CEMETERIES.  431 

And  yet  such  men  there  are,  wlio  woiikl  resurrect  the  very 
dust  of  their  grandmothers  and  convert  it  into  sordid  goUl, 
were  such  a  thing  possible.  In  all  large  cities  "body-snatch- 
ing," as  it  is  called,  is  followed  as  an  occupation  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent.  Medical  men  \vish  sulyects  for  dissection,  and 
the  wants  of  students  of  anatomy  and  physiology,  both  i)rivate 
and  public,  of  course  beget  a  demand  for  dead  bodies,  and 
there  are  always  enough  people  unemployed  who  rejoice  at  an 
opportunity  to  engage  in  the  business. 

That  "body-snatching"  has  been  extensively  carried  on, 
and  as  a  matter  of  course  must  have  been  profitable,  in  St. 
Louis  in  other  days,  we  will  take  the  testimony  offered  by  the 
condition  of  large  numbers  of  graves  when  the  growing 
demand  for  space  required  the  abandonment  and  removal  of 
the  remains  from  some  of  the  old  cemeteries  of  the  city.  In 
many  cases  when  the  old  Presbyterian  Cemetery  was  aban- 
doned and  the  graves  were  opened  to  remove  the  remains,  it 
was  found  that  the  coffins  had  been  rifled  of  their  contents  ; 
in  some  cases  billets  of  wood  had  been  substituted  lor  the 
dust  of  the  dead.  So,  too,  when  the  gj-aves  of  the  "NVcsleyan 
Cemetery  were  opened,  not  a  few  of  them  were  found  empty; 
and  so  of  all  the  old  cemeteries  which  have  given  place  to  the 
growins;  citv. 

The  number  of  arrests  made,  or  even  of  the  discoveries 
of  robberies  of  this  character,  when  compared  with  the  number 
of  crimes  of  this  sort  annually  committed,  are  in  all  probability 
comparatively  small. 

Notwithstanding  the  existence  of  a  law  giving  the  unclaimed 
bodies  of  the  pauper  dead  of  the  city  hospitals  to  the  medical 
colleges  for  dissection,  yet  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
trade  in  dead  bodies  in  St.  Louis  is  still  maintained  ;  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  bodies  of  some  of  those  who  were 
laid  away  to  rest  in  the  pensive  forests  of  Bellefontaine  and 
Calvary,  and  St.  Peter's  and  Picker's,  and  others  of  the  ceme- 
teries adjacent  to  the  city,  have  been  exhumed,  conveyed  to 
the  medical  colleges'  dissecting-rooms,  or  the  private  othrc  of 
a  country  doctor,  and  their  bones  at  last  converted  into  gliastly 
skeletons,  hung  up  in  country  doctor-shops,  to  be  the  wonder 
and  terror  of  rural  urchins  and  lasses.     But  these  robberies 


432  TOUE   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

were  successfully  accomplished.  The  dead  tell  no  tales,  and 
the  livino-  can  not  keep  an  eternal  watch  over  the  graves  of. 
even  the  most  devotedly  loved  ones. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  cases  of  graveyard  robbery 
which  ever  occurred  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  led  to  the 
arraignment  of  one  Ernest  Doepkc,  a  man  of  considerable 
propert}^  in  the  Criminal  Court,  charged  with  a  felony  in 
stealing  from  Picker's  graveyard,  on  the  14th  of  December, 
1875,  the  coiSn  containing  the  body  of  one  Conrad  Doll,  and 
his  case  is  even  now  pending  in  the  Supreme  Court.  Still 
more  recently,  on  the  occasion  of  removing  bodies  from  the 
Wesleyan  Cemetery,  it  was  found  that  several  graves  had  been 
molested,  and  one  coffin  contained  nothing  but  a  great  log  of 
wood.  The  Doepke  case  was  in  some  respects  peculiar. 
About  4  p.  M.,  on  the  14th  of  Decem.ber,  1875,  Conrad  Doll, 
father-in-law  of  Louis  Merkel,  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  At  9  o'clock  that  evening,  it 
being  a  dark,  rainy  night,  a  covered  wagon  drew  up  to  a  house 
of  entertainment  near  by,  and  after  the  horses  had  been 
watered,  was  driven  off  in  the  direction  of  the  cemetery. 
Persons  in  the  house  had  their  suspicions  aroused,  and  rightly 
ffuessed  that  some  "  bodv-snatching  "  business  was  about  to 
take  place.  A  posse  of  citizens  was  at  once  quietly  and 
quickly  gathered  together,  and  the  graveyard  was  approached 
and  surrounded  on  all  sides.  Those  listening  at  the  fence 
soon  heard  the  sound  of  the  pick  and  shovel  and  the  murmur 
of  suppressed  voices.  Following  these  sounds,  the  posse 
gradually  came  upon  the  ghouls  as  their  work  was  finished. 
The  coffin  had  been  taken  out  of  the  grave  and  put  in  the 
wagon  with  the  body,  whose  long  gray  hair  streamed  free  to 
the  wind.  As  the  Doepkc  party  were  driving  out  of  the 
cemetery,  some  of  the  citizens  seized  the  horses'  heads.  There 
was  a  short  and  desperate  struggle  in  the  dark,  but  the  citizens 
prevailed.  Doepke  and  his  two  assistants  were  at  their  cap- 
tors' mercy. 

Under  the  law  the  stealing  of  the  body  was  only  a  misde- 
meanor, and  Doepke  was,  with  a  view  to  his  being  sent  to  the 
penitentiary,  indicted  for  grand  larceny  in  the  stealing  of  the 
rosewood    coffin    containing   Doll's    body.      On   trial   in   the 


GHOULS    OF    TilK    CEMETEKIKS. 


433 


Criminal  Court,  Doepke  was  found  guilty  and  awarded  two 
years  at  Jefferson  City.  jNIotiou  for  new  trial  was  filed  mid  sus- 
tained, on  the  ground  of  varianee  between  the  aUegalion  of 
the  indictment  and  the  proof,  for  it  turned  out  that  the  eoftin 
was  really  not  rosewood,  only  an  imitation.  A  now  imlietnient 
was  found,  charging  the  stealing  of  an  imitation  rosewood 
coffin,  and  again  was  Doepke  found  guilty  on  trial  and  sen- 
tenced to  two  years  in  the  State  penitentiary.  Appeal  was 
taken  to  the  Court  of  Appeals,  which  sustained  the  Circuit 


GRAVE-UOBBKllS  AT   WOitK. 

Attorney,  and  still  another   appeal   to   the    Supreme  Court, 
where  the  case  was  lately  pending. 

Of  course,  as  soon  as  Doepke  had  been  arrested,  all  sorts 
of  stories  commenced  to  be  told  about  himself  and  his  nefa- 
rious business.  It  Avas  said  that  for  years  he  had  had  the 
burying  of  the  pauper  dead  in  the  potter's  field,  and  tliat  on 
opening  many  of  the  graves  the  coffins  were  found  eni[)ty. 
A  wild,  weird  story  was  told  by  a  woman,  who,  it  was  said, 
had  accompanied  her  employer,  Doepke,  to  the  pauper  burying 

28 


434  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

ground  for  the  purpose  of  opening  a  grave  ;  of  how,  when 
that  grave  was  opened,  the  inmate  of  the  coffin  was  found  to 
have  been  Iniricd  alive,  and  that  a  spade  blow  ended  that 
pauper's  life  then  and  there.  The  story  is,  of  course,  wholly 
incredible,  and  is  only  given  as  a  sample  of  the  sensational 
tales  put  in  circulation  about  that  time. 

Just  how  the  medical  schools  of  St.  Louis  got  their  sub- 
jects for  the  dissecting-room  in  the  olden  time  is  one  of  those 
things  that  has  not  been  found  out.  The  supply  was  never 
equal  to  the  demand,  and  about  two  years  ago  the  Legislature, 
b}^  enactment,  decreed  that  the  bodies  of  all  patients  dying  in 
the  city  charitable  hospitals,  and  unclaimed  within  forty-eight 
hours  after  death,  should  be  distributed  among  the  various 
medical  colleges,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  students  in 
attendance  on  each  college.  Since  the  passage  of  this  act  the 
city  hospitals  have  been  looked  to  as  the  source  of  subjects 
for  anatomical  demonstration.  Even  this  regulation  has  not 
worked  quite  successfully,  on  account  of  the  difficidty  of 
regulating  the  death  rate  so  as  to  supply  specimens  just  when 
they  are  needed,  and  in  periods  of  low  mortality  the  supply 
has  fallen  fearfully  and  wofully  short  of  the  legitimate  demand. 

The  robbers  of  the  graves  of  the  dead  do  it  for  money. 
There  is  some  risk  attending  the  conduct  of  this  sort  of  traffic, 
and  the  medical  students  have  had  to  pay  handsomeh''  for 
subjects  in  the  past.  It  is  23ossil)le  that  there  is  comparatively 
little  body-snatching  going  on  in  this  city  at  present. 

There  is  a  prejudice  against  dissecting  the  bodies  of  the 
dead  among  the  masses  of  the  people.  In  consequence  of 
this  condition  of  public  sentiment,  a  very  large  number  of 
bodies  of  paupers  who  die  at  the  city  institutions  are  claimed 
by  friends  and  buried,  who  might  otherwise  remain  in  the 
back  ground,  and  leave  the  defunct  to  find  repose  in  potters' 
field.  Because  the  people  dislike  the  notion  of  allowing  the 
bodies  of  the  dead  being  carved  up  by  medical  students,  even 
l)aupers'  in  death  have  friends  who  care  for  their  mortal 
remains.  It  is  a  fact,  that  all  the  paupers  dying  in  St.  Louis 
hospitals  do  not  furnish  a  sufficient  number  of  subjects  for  the 
colleges  alreadv  established. 

But  after  all,  this  traffic  in  the  bodies   of  the  dead  is  a 


STREET    VENDORS.  435 

ghoulish,  ghastly  business.  Think  of  this  midnight  trip  to 
the  solemn  cljirkness  of  the  cemetery  ;  the  stealthy  approach  ; 
the  whispered  consultation  ;  the  (juiet  and  secret  work  ;  tinally 
the  opened  grave  ;  the  disentombed  coffin  ;  the  clay-cold  form 
of  the  dead,  lifted  from  its  resting  place,  and  liurriodly  jjlaced 
in  a  wagon  to  be  carried  away  to  the  charnal-room  of  the 
medical  college  ;  all  there  in  the  shadow  of  the  gloomy  night ! 
Who  would  care  to  engage  in  such  business,  when 

'The  powers  of  the  night, 
That  range  above  the  region  of  the  wind. 
Deepening  the  courts  of  twilight,  brealv  them  up 
Through  all  the  silent  spaces  of  the  worlds.*' 

But  in  this  materialistic  a2:e,  for  orokl,  men  will  enfjajje 
even  to  rob  the  livinof  of  the  dust  of  their  dead. 


STREET  VENDORS. 


PICTUEES  OF  OUR  OUT-DOOR  MERCHANTS— BUSI- 
NESS CALLS. 

A  box-like  contrivance,  six  feet  long  and  three  feet  wide, 
mounted  on  a  pair  of  wheels  a  la  gig,  with  a  man  phiying  the 
part  of  the  horse,  is  not  unfrequently  charged  with  the  fortune 
and  the  hopes  of  a  newly-made  American  citizen,  lately  of  King 
Humbert's  dominions.  Many  such  peripatetic  sales-stalls  are 
to  be  met  with  on  our  streets  by  the  visitor.  Generally  there 
are  two  men — let  me  say  Messrs.  Macaroni  and  Vermicelli, 
for  instance — with  these  wandering  stores.  Mr.  Macaroni 
will  propel  the  well-stocked  perambulating  fruit  store,  while 
Mr.  Vermicelli  will  take  the  sidewalk  and  continually  an- 
nounce, "  Nice,  fresh  bannany  !  on-lee  twenty  cent  a  doo-zin  I" 
or  "  Ere's  your  nice,  fresh  pine-appela,  on-le-e  thirty  cent 
apiece!"  Then,  immediately  he  calls  out,  in  tones  plainly 
audible  five  blocks  away,  "  Pine  ap-pel-la,  nice  p-i-nc  ap-pel-la  ! 


436 


TOUK    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


Pine  appols!"  Sometimes  Mr.  Vermicelli  will  carry  with 
him  a  bugle,  with  which  he  ever  and  anon  sounds  the  cavalry 
call,  interspersed  all  along  with  the  announcement  of  the 
character  and  quality  of  the  fruits  or  nuts  which  he  has  for  sale. 
The  trade  in  tropical  fruits  and  in  nuts  is  largely  in  the 
hands  of  Italians,  who  are  altogether  the  most  successful 
vendors  of  such  things  on  the  street.  Some  of  them  peram- 
bulate the  streets,  while  others  are  fixed  at  corner-stalls^ 
Some  of  them  select  a  favorite  corner  and  stop  their  peram- 


STREET   VENDORS. 


bulator  in  the  gutter,  while  they  continually  cry  out  the 
quality  and  price  of  the  fruits,  nuts,  etc.,  which  they  offer  for 
sale  to  the  passing  throngs.  Some  of  these  street  cries  ar^ 
quite  musical,  and,  uttered  by  the  soft-voiced  sons  of  Italy, 
the  effect  produced  is  not  unpleasing.  "Pea  nut-^ee !  frez 
ro-asted  pee  nut-^ee  !  On-ee  Jive  cent  a  quart !"  The  cadences 
employed  in  these  efforts  at  commercial  oratory  are  very 
pleasing  and  not  unfrequently  effective. 

Many  of  the  fruit-stands  on  the  corners  are  attended  by 


STREET    VENDOHS.  437 

girls  and  women,  who  are,  with  very  few  exceptions,  Italian 
in  nationality.  Some  of  the  corner  frii it-venders  carry  quite 
a  stock  of  fruits,  nuts,  etc.,  and  in  the  course  of  years,  by 
strict  attention  to  business  and  the  practice  of  the  most  rij;id 
economy,  they  have  acquired  C()nsideral)le  fortunes.  There  is 
one  corner-vendor  with  a  stock  of  no  more  than  tlnrty  or  forty 
dollars  worth  on  dispUiy  at  a  time,  who  pays  taxes  on  foi'tv- 
five  thousand  dollars  worth  of  real  estate. 

A  still  humbler  class  of  vendors  than  those  we  have  mi'U- 
tioned  carry  a  basket  with  a  few  apples,  oranges,  nuts,  etc., 
according  to  the  season.  Not  a  few  of  these  are  Italian  girls, 
ranging  in  age  from  five  to  fifteen  3'ears,  and  in  many  instances 
have  been  sent  out  by  padrones,  who  have  purchased  their 
services  and  treat  them  like  slaves. 

The  patent-medicine  vendor  of  St.  Louis  partakes  of  the 
nature  of  his  class  everywhere.  Those  who  have  paid  any 
attention  whatever  to  the  characteristic  features  of  a  great 
city,  have  not  failed  to  observe  the  noisy  orator,  who  has  taken 
possession  of  the  mouth  of  an  alley,  or  a  little  vacant  space  in 
the  heart  of  the  business  part  of  the  city,  and  from  the  "  first 
dim  shadow  of  dewy  eve,  till  the  full  moon  in  Hiid-heaven 
careers,"  ceases  not  to  assure  a  waiting,  gaping  crowd  that 
the  remedies  he  dispenses  are  sovereign  panaceas  for  all  the 
ills  to  which  human  flesh  is  heir.  For  a  consideration  any  one 
of  the  company  may  try  it  on  themselves.  All  the  medi- 
cines the  aEsculapian  orator  sells  are  cure-alls,  and  he  gener- 
ally carries  along  several  specimen  huml)ug  remedies. 

The  "  snide"  jeweler  on  the  corner,  in  the  alley,  or  the 
vacant  lot,  is  a  similar  being  to  the  patent  nostrum  vendor. 
If  he  were  not  a  "  vsnide  "  jeweler,  he  would  be  a  humbug 
medicme  dispenser ;  and  if  the  nostrum  vendor  were  not  that, 
he  would  be  a  "  snide  "  jeweler.  Indeed,  the  same  individual 
may  play  both  i^oles  at  ditferent  times. 

Another  characteristic  dealer  of  a  great  city  is  th(>  seller  (><' 
canary  birds,  from  a  convenient  alley-mouth.  The  style  of 
his  game  is  something  like  the  following:  Having  establisjied 
himself  at  a  suitable  place,  he  commences  business  i)y  expos- 
ing- a  caofe  containing  several  birds,  in  front  of  which  is  a  letter- 
rack   filled    with  envelopes,  enclosing  a  small  slip  on  which 


438  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

some  sentences  are  lithographed.  Having  engaged  the  at- 
tention of  the  passer-by,  he  proposes  to  have  one  of  his  birds 
to  select  an  envelope,  Avhich  would  prove  to  be  the  key  to  his 
future  career.  The  "gudgeon"  don't  care  for  the  nickel, 
which  the  bird  merchant  expresses  a  willingness  to  take.  The 
bird  in  the  cage,  coaxed  by  the  adroit  dealer,  hops  about  the 
cage  and  chirps  and  flutters,  and  then  selects  from  the  letter- 
rack  in  front  of  the  cage  the  sealed  envelope,  which  he  raises 
in  his  bill  and  thrusts  through  the  wires  of  his  cage  toward  the 
nearest  spectator.  The  object  of  the  vendor  is  accomplished. 
The  attention  of  the  uninitiated  flat  is  engaged,  and  he  has  a 
good  chance  to  sell  the  "  gray  "  a  bird,  which  is  really  worth 
nothing,  being  a  female  and  not  a  singer.  The  fortune-telling 
programme  is  merely  an  episode  in  the  bird  trade,  seeing 
that  the  vendor  in  this  case  is  always  an  adept  in  the  art  and 
mystery  of  selling  valueless  non-singing  canary  birds.  The 
question  asked  is,  "  Do  these  birds  sing  I"  The  answer  is, 
"  Of  course  they  do."  And  then  the  "  flat  "  concludes  to  take 
one,  and  accept  an  invitation  to  tea  at  the  home  of  the  Misses 
Lofty,  from  whose  tender  parents  he  is  just  in  receipt  of  an 
invitation — a  high  distinction,  by  the  way.  But  alas  !  the 
bird  for  which  he  parted  with  so  much  clear  cash  never  repays 
him  with  a  single  wild  carol.  He  wisely  concludes  that  he 
will  say  nothing  about  having  been  caught  as  a  "  sucker," 
and  gives  his  bird  to  the  first  little  girl  who  is  willing  to  accept 
it  as  an  unmusical  pet. 

The  antiquarian  book-dealers,  who  run  the  street  stands, 
are  a  class  of  traders  unlike  all  the  rest.  Among  them  are 
some  people  of  strongly  marked  traits  of  character,  full  of  ec- 
centricities and  vagaries.  As  a  general  rule  they  are  ipen  of 
more  than  ordinary  intelligence.  They  buy  old  and  rare  books, 
as  opportunity  off'ers,  and  sell  them  at  a  considerable  profit. 
But  they  deal  in  all  kinds  of  books,  and  they  have  among  their 
patrons  all  classes  of  citizens.  It  is  not  unfrequently  the  case 
that  a  second-hand  dealer  may  have  in  his  stock  works  that 
are  not  for  sale  at  the  large  book  stores,  and  can  not  be  found 
on  the  shelves  of  our  extensive  public  libraries. 

Of  course  there  are  scores  of  perambulating  dealers  in 
everything  which  can  be  of  possible   use   to   mankind.     The 


STREET    VENDOUS.  4'.VJ 

peiidler  of  novelties,  patented  articles,  agents  for  the  sale  of 
toilet  soaps,  pins,  needles,  fancy  goods,  sewing  machines, 
lightning  rods,  fluting  irons,  wringers,  needle  threaders  ;  in 
fact,  it  is  possible  to  buy  anything,  from  pianos  and  hand- 
grain  mills  to  a  patent  pen-holder  ami  infinitesimal  scent-bag, 
without  once  venturing  beyond  one's  own  threshold. 

In  addition  to  the  classes  we  have  mentioned  as  street  ven- 
dors, there  are  some  hundreds  of  people  who  make  a  living  as 
rag  merchants  on  a  small  scale.  They  do  not  themselves 
gather  rags,  but  having  obtained  a  sufficient  amount  of  wealth, 
they  invest  in  a  hand-cart,  and  go  through  tiie  streets  pro- 
claiming their  mission.  Strictly  speaking,  these  are  not  ven- 
dors, but  they  are,  nevertheless,  members  of  the  same  class 
to  which  the  persons  w^e  have  heretofore  described  belong — 
that  is,  they  are  street  traffickers. 

But  by  far  the  largest  number  of  street  vendors  are  in- 
cluded in  the  ranks  of  the  hucksters — peddlers  of  domestic 
fruits  and  vegetables,  sellers  of  kindling  Avood,  charcoal,  etc. 
In  the  spring-time  the  flowers  bloom,  and  in  the  si)ring-time 
the  birds  sing  their  love  carols  ;  so,  too,  in  the  sj)ring-time, 
the  huckster  starts  forth  on  his  noisy  mission.  Al)ove  the 
rumbling,  crashing  noises  of  the  streets  of  the  great  hive  of 
humanity  rises  the  long-drawn  proclamations:  "Ch-a-r- 
c-o-al ! "  "  Nice  n-e-w^  po-ta-toes  f  "  "  Straw-ber-rees .' ' ' 
*' Ross-ber-rees  !"  "  Fine,  fresh  ban-nan-?^^^."'  "  Gre-en 
pe-es.^"  "  Ap-^o?5/"  and  other  similar  announcements,  the 
cries  being  varied  in  accordance  with  the  changes  of  the 
market.  All  over  the  city  these  street-cries  resound  from 
early  morning  until  nightfall.  Hundreds  of  men  and  ])oys, 
all  through  the  variable  spring  sK'ason  and  the  hot  summer 
days,  make  their  rounds,  uttering  the  same  monotonous  cries. 
And  this  street  traffic  presents  one  of  the  most  interesting 
phases  of  the  stiuggle  for  existence — for  wealth,  in  the 
crowded  thoroughfares  of  the  great  city.  Year  in  and  year 
out  the  same  announcements  are  made.  The  individuals  change, 
but  not  the  methods  of  l)usiness.  Several  generations  of 
hucksters  have  come  and  gone  already  since  St.  Louis  became 
a  city,  and  a  hundred  generations  may  come  and  go  ere  the  last 
huckster  is  laid  to  "  rest  'neath  the  daisies." 


DANDIES    AND    DAMSELS. 


BEAUX  AND  BELLES— TEAITS  OF  CHARACTEK. 

The  dawdy  dandies,  those  ill-conditioned  and  useless  out- 
growths of  our  modern  social  conditions,  are  a  class  by  them- 
selves well  deserving  of  a  special  mention.  To  say  the  best 
that  can  be  said  for  them,  they  are  but  foul  excrescences  on 
the  social  body. 

These  fellows  may  be  seen  in  groups  and  companies  any  fine 
afternoon  on  the  most  fashionable  promenades  of  the  city, 
when  the  innocence  of  girlhood  and  the  beauty  of  bellehood 
throno;  the  thorousrhfares. 

His  costume  is  modeled  after  the  extreme  of  fashion  ;  pants 
of  the  greatest  latitude  flap  gracefully  as  he  ambles  along, 
while  collar  and  cuffs  are  of  such  prodigious  prominence  that 
one  unconsciously  finds  himself  wondering  if  he  pays  his  laun- 
dress by  the  square  yard.  An  eye-glass  dangles  carelessly 
upon  his  immaculate  vest-front,  when  it  is  not  daintily  poised 
upon  the  nose,  while  the  fascinating  owner,  with  chin  slightly 
elevated  and  head  a  little  on  one  side,  impudently  ogles  the 
passing  belles.  The  other  hand  carries  a  delicate  little  cane, 
with  which  in  moments  of  elegant  leisure — and  they  are  num- 
erous— he  can  gently  tap  his  boot  as  he  leans  negligently  against 
some  convenient  pillar  or  post.  His  favorite  lounging  place 
is  the  portico  of  a  large  hotel,  or  the  doorway  of  some  favorite 
restaurant,  where  his  usual  employment  consists  in  picking  his 
teeth,  as  if  he  wished  to  inform  the  world  at  large  that  he  had 
just  partaken  of  a  most  delectable  lunch  or  dinner.  The  fair 
frequenters  of  the  matinees  will  invariably  find  him  in  the  row 
of  male  spectators  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle  before  the  main 

[440] 


DANDIES    AND    DAMSELS.  441 

exit  from  the  theatre — a  sort  of  vohinteer  l)ody  jrnard  to  pro- 
tect the  weaker  sex,  one  might  ima<rine,  if  thej  did  not 
perceive,  from  the  killing  glances  and  graceful  poses,  that  the 
object  was  only  to  "mash"  frail  feminine  hearts. 

A  sort  of  hrst  cousin  to  the  fashionable  swell  is  the  sport- 
ing swell,  the  principal  ditferencp  being  that  the  latter  is  a  tone 
or  two  louder  and  more  vulgar  than  the  former.  The  "sport" 
is  apt  to  exhibit  more  shirt-front,  with  a  brilliant  display  of 
diamonds  thereon,  and  the  style  of  his  cravat  and  clothes  gen- 
erally is  not  so  neat  and  elegant  as  that  of  his  more  respect- 
able kinsman,  and  the  latter,  too,  generally  enjo3's  even  more 
eleo;ant  leisure  than  the  former,  for  as  John  (1.  Saxe  truly 
puts  it,  to  be  "without  any  visible  means  of  support"  is 

"A  crime  by  no  means  flagrant 
In  one  wlio  wears  an  elejjant  coat. 
But  the  very  points  on  which  they  vote 
A  shabby  man  a  vagrant." 

Again  one  very  frequently  sees  a  tall,  rather  thin,  and 
beardless  young  man,  arrayed  entirely  in  black,  with  a  serious 
cast  of  countenance,  a  sort  of  settled  gravity  as  though  life 
were  too  short  to  laugh  and  talk  nonsense,  and  everybody 
must  be  up  and  busy  preparing  for  the  next  world.  If  you 
follow  this  young  man  you  will  tind  his  destination  to  be  the 
Baptist  or  Presbyterian,  or  some  other  Board  of  Publication 
rooms,  whence  he  will  soon  issue  with  a  package  of  tracts,  or 
ornamental  cards  of  printed  texts  for  his  Sunday-school. 
This  sort  of  young  man  is  inclined  to  think  very  well  of  him- 
self; his  appearance  indicates  it;  there  is  a  sort  of  complacent 
look  on  his  smooth.,  well-shaven  face  ;  and  his  very  locks, 
combed  so  neatly  behind  his  ears,  and  curling  over  the  collar 
of  his  coat,  are  redolent  of  assurance  of  self-satisfaction. 

Closely  allied  to  the  clerical  youth  is  the  "nice"  young 
man.  You  will  know  him  by  his  always  being  with  the  rest 
of  the  o-irls,  or  else  dutifully  escortinir  his  "  ma."  Another 
distinguishing  mark  is  his  never  having  a  cigar — he  doesn't 
smoke,  nor  chew,  nor  drink  anything  stronger  than  lemonade, 
nor  swear,  nor  do  anything  else  that  is  "  naughty."      lie  has 


442  TOUR    OF    ST.   LOUIS. 

always  been  brought  up  with  his  sisters  ;  he  was  delicate  in  his 
youth,  and  isn't  \ery  strong  now  ;  and,  instead  of  playing 
snowball  with  the  other  boys,  he  sat  in  the  house  by  the  fire 
and  sewed  patch-work  on  his  mother's  knee.  His  earl}^  tastes 
have  not  changed  with  his  years  ;  he  stdl  has  a  weakness  for 
feminine  fancies  ;  likes  to  sew  on  his  own  buttons,  and  do  his 
own  mending.  He  doesn't  like  to  be  left  alone  much  in  the 
dark,  and  quietly  slips  out  of  the  way  at  the  first  mention  of 
the  probabilities  of  a  fight.  A  slight  lisp  and  affected  pronun- 
ciation distinguish  his  speech,  and  of  a  Sunday  he  walks 
properly  to  church  with  a  showy  little  j^rayer  book  in  his  hand. 

That  gentlemanly  looking  fellow  in  the  seedy  coat  is  a 
young  legal  aspirant,  at  present  somewhat  unknown  and  strug- 
srlino-,  but  in  his  own  estimation  at  least  a  future  Blackstone. 
There  is  an  eager,  questioning  look  on  his  face  as  he  glances 
at  every  passer-by,  as  though  each  one  were  a  possible  client 
commissioned  by  Heaven  to  open  up  to  him  the  path  to  wealth 
and  glory. 

Then  there  are  the  bummers,  and  the  "mashers,"  all 
industriously  occupied  of  a  fine  afternoon,  staring  at  every 
passing  lady,  old  or  young,  matron  or  maid.  Working  girls 
and  sportive  belles  are  alike  objects  of  their  attention.  Of 
what  use  are  such  fellows  in  the  world?  Ah,  who  will  answer? 
Thorns  are  they,  prepared  by  some  inscrutable  agency  to  tor- 
ment human  society,  and  blast  all  dreams  of  happiness  and 
peace  unalloyed  by  the  presence  of  sin  and  shame  !  Alas  ! 
for  the  frailties  of  the  race  !  The  wicked  continue  to  trouble, 
and  the  world  gets  on  slowly  towards  the  millenium  of  perfec- 
tion. 

If  a  stranger  in  the  city  w^ould  esteem  it  pleasant  to  take 
up  a  position,  any  fine  evening,  on  the  corner  of — well,  say 
Fourth  and  Olive  streets, — he  would  no  doubt  conclude  that 
he  was  well  repaid  for  the  outlay  of  time  before  the  shadows 
of  evening  fell  and  the  gaslight  gleamed  through  the  dusky 
darkness.  In  such  a  position  he  would  be  very  likely  to 
become  cognizant  of  the  fact  that,  to  use  the  stereotyped 
phraseology  of  the  schoolboy's  composition,  "  there  are  many 
different  kinds  of  irirls."      First  and   foremost,  there  is  the 


DANDIES    AND    DAMSELS.  443 

school  girl,  who  may  be  seen  any  bright  inorniiig  durinir  school 
term,  coming  down  Olive  Street,  wilii  her  i)ile  of  books  uiukir 
her  arm  or  neatly  stowed  away  in  a  littU'  l)ag  which  she  swings 
carelessly  by  her  side.  The  average  age  is  "  sweet  sixteen  ;" 
and  mightily  sweet  she  looks,  too,  in  her  neat  school  dress, 
always  made  in  the  latest  style,  and  with  a  goodly  number  of 
bright  bows  and  ribbons  fluttering  around.  8he  doesn't  exactly 
carry  out  the  old  nursery  rhvme,  "with  riuirs  on  her  flnsers 
and  bells  on  her  toes;"  but  the  rings  are  a  matter  of  fact, 
and  the  bells,  instead  of  l)eing  on  the  toes,  are  transferred  to 
the  Avrists  in  the  shape  of  bangles,  and  sometimes  dangle  from 
the  dainty  ears  or  round  the  neck  of  the  youthful  student. 
Whatever  is  the  latest  vagary  of  fashion,  you  may  be  sure 
these  young  female  Socrates  will  find  it  out  and  exhibit  it  on 
their  costumes.  As  a  rule,  the  school  girl  is  prettv ;  the 
freshness  of  her  complexion  is  such  as  to  render  artificial  com- 
pounds unnecessary ;  and  bright  eyes,  elastic  step,  and  free 
movements,  make  her  rather  a  pleasing  picture  to  contem- 
plate. But  it  isn't  well  to  go  any  further  than  outside  contem- 
plation. The  wisdom  of  the  sages,  with  which  she  is  supposed 
to  be  filling  her  pretty  cranium,  doesn't  appear  to  take  deep 
root.  The  soil  evidently  is  not  congenial  ;  at  least  such  ap- 
pears to  be  the  case  if  one  may  judge  by  her  conversation. 
Now,  one  w^ould  naturally  suppose  those  two  dainty  specimens 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  in  such  deep  and  earnest 
conversation,  were  discussing  the  character  of  Julius  Cicsar  or 
George  Washington,  or,  perhaps,  comparing  notes  on  the  solu- 
tion of  some  difficult  problem  in  Euclid.  Alas  !  alas  !  nothing 
of  the  kind  ;  they  are  only  discussing  the  respective  good  looks 
of  two  young  men  on  the  car  that  has  just  passed  them,  and 
whom  they  favored  with  a  smiling  glance  and  audible  giggle. 
If  they  condescend  to  speak  of  their  studies  at  all,  it  is  some- 
what in  thiswise:  "Oh,  Jennie,  have  you  got  this  horrid 
history  lesson?"  "Not  I,  indeed,"  says  Jennie,  Avith  a  toss 
of  her  head.  "I.  don't  see  the  use  of  bothering  our  heads 
oyer  these  dry  dates  and  a  lot  of  old  duffers  who  are  dead  and 
gone,  and  whom  nobody  cares  anything  about  anyhow.  As 
for  mathematics,  I  can't  see  any  sense  in  them  at  all  ;  I  always 
set  brother  Tom  to  do  mine  for  uie  ; — and,  oh,  Kate,  did  you 


444  TOUR    OF    ST.  LOUIS. 

see  that  lovely  hat  on  the  lady  that  just  passed  ;  it  Avas  a  per- 
fect love  ; — and  look  at  that  elegant  fellow  there  ;  he  tries  to 
flirt  with  me  every  morning,  but  I  never  look  at  him."  And 
so  on  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  It's  all  very  pretty  and 
poetical,  that 

5  "  Standing  with  reluctant  feet, 

Where  the  brook  und  river  meet, 
Womanhood  and  cliildliood  fleet;" 

but  the  melanchoiy  fact  is  that  the  feet  are  not  reluctant  at 
all ;  they  are  only  too  anxious  to  wade  out  of  the  brook  of 
childhood,  and  get  over  head  and  ears  in  a  whirl  of  balls  and 
parties,  and  beaux,  and  theaters,  with  all  the  horrid  old  books 
and  teachers  consigned  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  of  oblivion. 

The  next  in  order,  then,  is  the  society  belle.  She  rises  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  with  her  front  hair  still  in  curl- 
papers, slides  into  a  pair  of  old  worn-out  slippers  and  slouchy 
wrapper,  and  sits  down  to  a  solitary  breakfast,  only  half  awake, 
and  cross  as  a  spoiled  child.  She  answers  her  mother's  re- 
marks petulantly,  and,  reclining  upon  a  lounge,  declares  she 
is  a  victim  to  all  the  aches  and  pains  that  flesh  is  heir  to.  The 
only  thing  that  elicits  any  sign  of  interest  from  her  is  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  new  dress  which  she  is  al)out  having  made  ;  she 
may  even  get  so  far  as  to  rise  and  make  some  alteration  in  a 
robe  for  the  evening's  wear.  When  evening  arrives,  however, 
behold  our  languid  invalid  transformed  into  a  radiant  butter- 
fly. The  discarded  apparel  of  the  grul) — wrapper,  slippers  and 
curl-papers,  are  hustled  into  a  convenient  closet  for  future  use  ; 
and,  in  elegant  robes,  all  smiles,  bewitching  glances  and  irre- 
sistible frizzes,  my  lady  mashes  masculine  hearts  by  the  score, 
and  reigns  supreme  the  belle  of  the  ball.  Whatever  her  out- 
ward charms  may  be,  her  mental  endowments  are  certainly 
not  sincerity  and  truthfulness.  A  ring  at  the  bell  interrupts 
her  afternoon  nap  ;  the  servant  hands  her  a  card — "That  hor- 
rid Nellie  ;  I  wish  she  had  stayed  at  home,"  snaps  the  amiable 
ladv.  In  a  half-hour's  time  she  is  extending  her  hand  and 
presenting  her  cheek,  with,  "My  dear  Nellie,  I  am  so  glad  you 
have  come."  In  a  few  "  seasons  "  she  has  "  hooked  "  some 
unluckv  man,  and  made  him  miserable  for  life. 


, 


DANDIKS    AND    DAMSELS.  445 

A  general  favorite  with  the  opposite  sex,  unless  it  may  be 
a  few  of  the  nuniby-paniby  sort,  is  the  dashing  belle.  This  is 
apt  to  be  a  young  lady  with  a  lot  of  brothers  or  male  cousins, 
whose  training  has  not  been  very  closely  attended  to  bv  a 
watchful  mamma.  Her  education  in  all  sorts  of  atldotic 
sports  began  when  she  was  a  little  girl,  in  c  limbing  trees  and 
jumping  fences.  She  can  skate  and  swim,  row  a  boat,  or  ride 
a  horse  innocent  of  a  saddle,  as  well  as  any  of  the  "boys." 
Of  course,  now  that  she  is  a  grown  3^oung  lady,  she  is  obliged 
to  curb  her  hoydenish  propensities  a  little  ;  but  even  now  her 
great  pleasure  is  to  get  hold  of  the  "  ribI)ons  ''  behind  a  pair 
of  mettled  steeds  ;  and  she  manages  them  well,  too.  Her  cos- 
tume is  what  one  might  term  "natty,"  or  "jaunty";  she 
affects  sailor  hats,  blouses,  basques  with  coat  tails  and  short 
dresses  in  preference  to  trails  ;  these  latter  she  dubs  a  "  nuis- 
ance," always  getting  around  "a  fellow's"  feet  and  upsetting 
him.  She  invariably  speaks  of  herself  as  "  a  fellow,"  and 
calls  her  companions  b}^  their  Christian  names  of  Tom,  Dick, 
or  Harry.  Everything  with  her,  too,  is  "  awfully  jolly  ;"  and 
she  occasionally  indulges  in  such  Avild  ejaculations  as  "by 
Jove  !"  and  "  the  deuce  !"  Her  delight  is  to  tilt  back  ever  so 
little  in  her  chair,  with  a  cigarette  between  her  pretty  red  lips, 
and  have  a  talk  about  horses  and  boat-races,  with  the  rest  of 
the  boys.  She  is  thoroughly  "  up  "  on  all  these  subjects,  and 
holds  in  unutterable  contempt  all  the  little  tittle-tatth^  and 
gossip  which  occupies  the  time  and  attention  of  the  majority 
of  her  sex.  Her  admirers  are  a  little  shy  of  making  love  to 
this  sort  of  a  girl ;  she  is  apt  to  declare,  plainly,  that  there  is 
"  no  nonsense  "  about  her,  and  to  squelch  the  amorous  youth 
by  interrupting  his  sentimental  mooning  Avith  some  satirically 
practical  observation. 

In  direct  opposition  to  the  above,  there  is  the  literary 
belle.  If  she  is  very  rich  she  adopts  a  classic  costume,  de- 
signed to  illustrate  some  character  or  period  in  literature, 
about  Avhich  she  talks  very  much.  If  only  moderately  well 
off,  she  follows  the  prevailing  fashion,  taking  care  to  inform 
every  one  she  considers  it  every  Avoman's  duty  to  make  her- 
self as  beautiful  as  possible,  Avith  all  the  accessories  of  dress, 
but  intimatins:  that  in  her  own  case,  at  least,  the  outward 


446  TOUR    OF    ST.  LOUIS. 

adornment  is  only  a  secondaiy  consideration — the  body  but 
the  casket,  containing  the  rare  jewels  of  her  cultivated  intellect. 
She  is  always  quoting  the  poets,  and  talks  much  about  culture, 
great  minds,  and  the  advancement  of  science.  She  never  con- 
descends to  read  novelists  of  less  note  than  George  Eliot,  and 
affects  to  enjoy  Ruskin,  Emerson,  and  Carlyle.  Her  remarks 
about  these  authors  are  very  vague,  and  she  adroitly  avoids 
discussions  with  any  likely  to  know  aught  al)out  them  ;  but  she 
has  an  inmiense  reputation  for  learning,  and  manages  to  keep 
it  up  with  a  tact  known  only  to  her  own  sex.  The  literar}' 
belle  is  not  particularly  j^opular  with  the  gentlemen  ;  she  talks 
too  much  for  the  savant,  and  is  a  notch  above  the  intellectual 
level  of  the  average  male  biped,  who  has  an  instinctive  dislike 
to  being  outdone  by  the  inferior  sex.  As  a  consequence,  the 
literary  belle  is  apt  to  live  a  life  of  single-blessedness. 

A  not  uncommon  phase  of  womanhood  is  the  devotional 
belle.  You  will  see  her  always  in  the  corner  of  the  pew  on 
Sunday  morning.  _iain  or  shine,  she  never  misses  a  service  ; 
and  the  Sunday-school,  too,  has  the  benefit  of  her  religious 
instruction.  It  is  true,  as  far  as  dress  is  concerned,  you  will 
not  be  able  to  distinguish  this  devout  and  cherished  member 
from  the  gayest  worldling  of  them  all.  Her  diamonds  sparkle 
just  as, brilliantly,  and  her  silks  and  velvets  trail  just  as  grandly 
m  the  sanctuary  as  over  the  floor  of  the  ball-room,  and  she 
has  considerable  trouble  sometimes  to  keep  the  not  "  ower'' 
clean  little  urchins  from  contaminating  her  daintiness.  But 
then  some  trials  must  be  endured  for  piety's  sake,  and  so  she 
gives  them  good  words — and  keeps  her  diamonds. 

This  charming  religieuse  is  an  adept  at  working  altar-cloths 
and  embroidering  slipjiers  for  clerical  feet.  She  has  an  intense 
admiration  for  young  ministers.  No  one  listens  to  his  learned 
and  edifying  sermons  with  such  rapt  attention  as  she.  No  one 
assures  him  with  such  enthusiastic  warmth  that  his  words  were 
inspired  droppings,  and  did  her  "so  much  good."  She  is 
deeply  interested  in  all  church  work,  and  never  neglects  a 
Dorcas  meeting,  especially  when  she  knows  the  minister  will 
be  likely  to  escort  her  home.  Should  she  fail  to  -win  the  first 
prize,  there  are  always  a  few  "  nice  "  young  men  in  the  church 
to  be  cauofht  hy  her  winnino:  sweetness  and  air  of  devotion. 


DANDIES    AM)    DAMSKLS.  447 

The  gushing  belle  is  found  in  nil  society,  and  may  ho  readily 
known  In'  her  frequent  exclamations  of  "  perfectly  ex(iuisite," 
"handsome,"  "so  delicious,"  "perfectly  horrid,"  clc.  It 
doesn't  make  a  particle  of  difference  what  may  be  the  subject 
under  discussion — a  sunset  or  a  new  bonnet,  a  painting  or  a 
poodle,  the  same  adjectives  are  applied  ;  they  are  elegant, 
delicious  or  lovely,  Avhichever  word  comes  uppermost.  S;iid  ;i 
pretty  l)lue-eyed  damsel  once  in  the  writer's  hearing,  chisping 
her  little  white  hands  and  gazing  ecstatically  into  the  clouds, 
"Oh,  I  adore  short  tailed  dogs."  Another  of  the  dear  creatures 
thought  a  blue  fawn  dress  was  "  heavenly,"  while  a  third 
declared  her  lover's  moustache  the  most  "  an2:elic"  thiniz;  she 
had  ever  seen.  These  tender  plants  will  scream  on  the  slight- 
est provocation,  and  a  June  bug  on  their  dresses  will  throw 
them  into  convulsions.  When  not  in  a  state  of  nervous  terror 
they  are  always  "so  charmed"  and  "so  delighted"  over 
everything  that  their  attendant  gallants  may  be  saving  or  doing 
that  the  poor  dear  fellows  themselves  are  charmed  into  tem- 
porary imbecility,  and  find  themselves  bound  in  the  silken  fet- 
ters of  a  matrimonial  engagement  before  they  know  what  they 
are  about.  ' 

There  is  still  another  class  of  girls  met  with  on  the  streets, 
which  can  not  be  classed  with  those  above  mentioned.  The 
girls  who  compose  this  class  ai-e  the  working  girls  :  the  attend- 
ants in  stores,  the  milliners,  and  the  shop  girls  ;  the  workers 
in  clothing  factories,  in  box  factories,  and  in  various  other  in- 
dustries in  which  women  are  engaged.  Tlie  stores  and  facto- 
ries and  shops  where  these  girls  are  employed,  are  located 
"down  town;"  and  the  girls  live  "uptown,"  away  north, 
far  west,  or  in  a  distant  district  in  the  south.  At  an  early 
hour  every  morning  these  girls  form  long  processions,  and  in 
pairs  seek  the  places  where  they  toil  througli  the  day.  These 
Avomen  represent  all  the  peculiar  features  common  to  the  sex. 
Youno-  o-irls,  fair  as  Aurora,  beautiful  as  VenuSj  and  fresh  as 
daisies,  are  not  infrequently  met.  Brunetttes  and  blondes  : 
vouno-  charms,  and  the  calm  scdateness  of  more  advanced 
A'^ears  ;  rosy  cheeks  and  roguish  eyes  nu)ving  along,  in  the 
great  stream  of  life,  with  sallow  fac(>s  and  cniacialcd  forms, 


448  TOUR    OF    ST.  LOUIS/ 

to  perform  the  dreary  tasks  of  the  day.     These  are  the  street 
pictures  of  the  morning. 

The  afternoons  and  evenings  present  another  picture.  The 
weary,  toil-worn  women  and  girls  are  on.  the  streets  again. 
From  five  to  six  o'clock,  and  a  little  later,  the  streets  are 
ao-ain  thronged.  This  time  the  thoroughfares  are  croAvded. 
Others  beside  working  women  and  girls  have  a  place  on  the 
streets.  There  are  dandies  and  fops,  and  such  like  fellows, 
with  tiny  rattan  canes  and  wax-pointed  mustaches,  on  every 
street  corner,  lying  in  wait,  as  it  were,  to  ogle  these  poor 
women  and  girls.  Every  pretty  working-girl  may  calculate 
upon  the  certainty  of  being  subjected  to  impertinent  stares 
from  these  scabs  on  the  social  body. 


SOCIAL    UNDERCURRENTS. 


A  SAD  PRESENTATION— CLANDESTINE  DEPRAVITY. 

There  must  of  necessity  be  vicious  phases  of  life  in  a  great 
metropolis,  such  as  St.  Louis  has  become.  There  arc  many 
abodes  of  the  sinful,  and  many  hundreds  of  sinners  to  inhabit 
them.  The  subject  is  one  which  we  do  not  care  to  dwell  upon. 
It  is  an  exhibit  of  human  depravity  which  must  <;ause  sorrow 
and  grief  and  shame  to  every  right  thinking  citizen .  A  minute 
description  of  the  low  dens  of  infamy,  of  which  there  are 
many,  would  be  out  of  place  even  in  this  volume.  Wo  turn 
from  the  performance  of  tlie  task.  But  there  are  phases  of 
life  which  present  themselves  which  we  can  not  ignore. 

If  the  strict  confidence  of  business  would  permit  the  lips 
of  detectives  to  be  opened,  they  could  a  "  tale  unfold"  which 
would  startle  the  pious  and  grieve  the  souls  of  the  moral. 
Happily,  business  and  honor  conspire  to  seal  their  lips,  and  the 
sad  revelations  are  not  made.  If  the  noble  and  pure  women 
who  preside  over  that  vast  institution  on  the  block  bounded 
by  Chestnut  and  Pine  and  Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth  streets 
— the  Refuge  of  the  Good  Shepherd — were  not  too  hopeful 
and  chaste,  they  might  tell  of  budding  beauties,  who,  forgetful 
of  the  purity  and  high  destiny  of  true  womanliood,  the  honor 
and  good  name  of  parents  and  friends,  have  started  out  on 
the  road  that  leadeth  to  death.  It  is  well  that  they  treasure 
up  the  knowledge  they  have  gained.  There  is  sorrow  enough 
in  those  homes  into  which  this  blight  of  disgrace  has  entered 
without  increasing  its  poignancy  by  proclaiming  tboir  shame  to 
the  great,  careless,  cruel,  cold-hearted  world.  And  if  no  other 
reason  existed,  the  fate  of  the  unfortunate  may  be  altogether 

89  1449] 


450  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

changed  by  allowing  her  time,  in  the  quiet  retirement  to  which 
she  is  forced  to  submit,  to  reflect  that 

"•  Beauty  fades, 
Years  roll  by, 
Lowering  shades 
Obscure  the  sky, 
And  joys,  so  sweet  of  yore, 
Shall  charm  us  then  no  more," 

And  amend  her  ways  and  return  to  the  paths  of  rectitude. 

If  the  "  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth  '* 
were  told  concerning  the  chmdestine  social  sins  of  the  great 
city,  it  would  startle  the  pious  and  bring  sorrow  to  the  hearts 
of  the  judicious.  To  relate  only  a  moiety  of  the  many  as- 
tounding facts  which  a  little  mvestigation  will  reveal,  would 
subject  the  author  to  the  suspicion  by  the  pul)lic  that  ho  must 
be  a  common  slanderer.  We  seek  not  the  reputation  ;  and 
propose  to  deal  witli  the  hidden  sins  in  as  gentle  a  manner  as 
the  extent  and  character  of  the  evil  will  permit. 

The  statement  is  made  on  the  authority  of  physicians  and 
detectives,  who  have  made  careful  investigations,  that  there  is 
a  far  larger  number  of  clandestine  prostitutes  and  libertines 
than  there  is  of  tlie  lewd  women  and  pimps  who  are  open  and 
notorious  smners.  And  these  women  and  men  come  from  all 
ranks  and  grades  of  society. 

A  physician,  whose  name  forob\nous  reasons  we  decline  to 
publish,  lately  informed  the  writer  that  he  had  just  dismissed 
a  patient,  a  young  woman  of  about  eighteen  years  of  age, 
whom  he  had  treated  for  a  loathsome  disease  contracted  in 
clandestmc  meetings  with  a  young  man  about  town.  This  girl 
was  described  by  the  physician  as  the  only  daughter  of  most 
respectable  parents,  who  move  in  good  society  and  have  an 
elegant  home  in  the  West  End.  Of  course  the  physician  kept 
her  secret  from  her  parents. 

Another  story  is  told  by  a  member  of  the  private  detective 
corps,  which  presents  a  sad  picture  of  the  social  demoraliza- 
tion which  exists  in  unexpected  places. 

A  most  respectable  gentleman,  the  possessor  of  an  ample 
fortune — at  least  a  competence — sought  the  aid  of  the  detective 
to  discover  for  him  the  whereabouts  of  his  only  daughter,  a 


SOCIAL   UNDERCURRENTS.  451 

beautiful  and  accomplished  girl  of  nearly  ciirlitcen  years,  uho 
had  absented  herself  from  the  elegant  family  home,  without 
affordnig  any  clew  to  her  whereabouts.  Some  slight  circum- 
stances, which  he  related  to  the  detective,  had  given  him 
some  uneasiness,  but  were  not  deemed  of  sufficient  importance 
to  excite  alarm.  The  shrewd  detective  at  once  ptMiot rated  the 
motive  of  the  girl  in  leaving  home,  and,  getting  some  traces, 
he  was  not  many  days  in  discovering  her  hiding-place,  in  a 
house  in  one  of  the  streets  running  west,  above  Eleve^ith 
Street,  inhabited  by  a  woman  who  claimed  to  be  a  respectable 
person,  a  regular  attendant  at  church  on  Sunday,  and  (juite 
profuse  in  her  professions  of  piety. 

The  young  woman  had  already  surrendered  her  honor,  and 
had  been  for  some  days  the  mistress  of  a  libertine  and  gam- 
bler. Who  can  conceive  of  the  depths  of  that  wordless  grief 
which  overwhelmed  the  parents  of  the  wayward  daughter, 
when  informed  that  their  child's  character  was  already  black- 
ened by  ineffaceable  stains.  Gladly  would  they  have  yielded 
her  to  the  arms  of  death,  in  her  sinlessness  and  i)urity,  rather 
than  this  terrible  shame  should  have  fallen  upon  her,  and  upon 
them. 

Another  detective  relates  a  sadly  touching  story  of  a  foolish 
maiden  who  resided  in  a  handsome  house,  in  a  respectablo 
neighborhood.  She  was  an  ori)han,  but  had  received  the  same 
care  and  attention  from  the  relatives  who  had  taken  charge  of 
her  as  if  her  own  father  and  mother  had  been  spared  to 
behold  her  develop  into  a  strikingly  handsome  giil.  She 
went  to  school ;  she  had  music  teachers,  and  everything  which 
even  vanity  could  require  was  given  by  her  indulgent  foster- 
parents.  To  all  appearance  she  was  contented  and  happy. 
She  regularly  attended  church  and  the  Sunday-school.  Her 
conduct  was  in  all  respects  exemplary,  and  though  she  pos- 
sessed a  sufficient  amount  of  vivacity,  yet  she  betrayed  no 
recklessness :  indeed,  she  was  esteemed  to  be  thoughtful 
beyond  her  years. 

One  Sunday  she  attended  her  class  in  the  Sabbath-school 
as  usual,  and  gave  instruction  to  them  in  the  old  way.  But 
she  did  not  return  home  that  night.  This  circumstance  created 
no  alarm,  as  she  had  many  friends,  and,  though  it  was  unusual 


452 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


for  her,  the  kind  relatives  thought  she  had  spent  the  night  with 
some  of  her  young  hidy  associates.  But  when  the  next  night 
came  and  she  had  not  yet  returned,  they  became  alarmed,  and 
sent  around  to  make  inquiries  among  their  friends.  They 
received  no  tidings  of  her.  The  foster-parents  then  sought 
police  aid.  On  the  Thursday  following  the  Sunday  on  which  she 
had  so   strangely  disappeared,  she  was  found  in  a  notorious 


THE  HAPPY  HOME. 


house  of  prostitution  on  Christy  Avenue — Green  Street,  as  it 
was  then  called.  She  had  gone  directly  to  the  den  from  the 
Sunday-school  room  ;  laid  aside  her  modest  apparel  and  donned 
the  Haunting  robes  of  a  harlot.  Her  foster-parents  came  to  her 
and  wept  over  and  besought  her  to  go  with  them  and  all  would 
be  forgiven.  She  seemed  somewhat  affected  by  their  tears 
and  appeals,  but  was  firm  in  her  refusal  to  leave  the  j^lace  of 
degradation.  Not  one  word  of  explanation  would  she  utter. 
As  she  was  of  age  nothhig  could  be  done  to  prevent  her  exer- 
cisinsr  her  own  inclinations. 


SOCIAL    UXDEUCURRENTS. 


453 


With  breaking  hearts  they  U'ft  their  darling  in  her  slianie 
— darling  to  them  now  no  more  ;  and  she  went  on  and  on, 
until  some  three  years  after  she  was  taken  out  of  the  turbid 
waters  of  the  Mississippi — dead.  She  had  died  of  a  broken 
heart  for  the  very  man  for  whose  sake  she  had  given  up  home, 
and  friends,  honor,  and  everything  that  had  been  dear  to  her — 
a  libertine  and  a  gambler  who  won  her  love,  and  afterwards 


THE   WAGES  OF  SIN. 

compelled  her  to  sell  her  charms  of  person  for  money  whieh 
he  squandered,  and  then,  when  her  l)eauty  began  to  fade,  he 
cast  her  away,  and  so  she  died.     Ah  ! 

'  'Bring  the  dead  treasures :  the  pleasure,  the  pain, 
Losses  and  crosses,  and  grieving  and  gain  ; 
Much  that  was  loving,  and  patient,  and  pure; 
Much  that  was  hopeless  and  hard  to  endure; 
Lay  them  down  gently,  the  trials  and  tears, 
Hopes  that  are  faded,  and  fiiendships  and  fours, 
Nursed  by  the  sunshine,  or  nipped  by  the  blast; 
Garner  them  safe  in  the  grave  of  the  past."' 


454  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Brief  and  painful  was  her  career.  But  was  the  wretched 
girl  the  only  sinner?  So  the  world  says.  After  singing  falls 
the  sigh  ;  and  all  the  blackest  midnights  succeed  golden  morns  ; 
after  the  sweet  comes  the  bitter.  Surely  she  could  have 
appealed — 

*'  Hearts'  dreams  are  the  sweetest  in  the  lonely  nest; 
Leave  me  while  you  love  me — this  is  surely  best !" 

But  would  he^  Would  the  base-hearted  one  have  left  the 
flower  unplucked ?     Say,  would /ie.^     Ha! 

Now  we  have  presented  three  little  stories,  and  every  one 
of  them  is  a  tragedy.  Two  beautiful  girls,  with  kind  parents, 
with  sumptuous  homes,  with  friends,  with  all  that  humbler 
wishes  could  possibly  desire,  in  the  silent  hours,  when  the  cur- 
tain of  night  descends  over  the  great  sinful  city,  steal  away 
from  those  homes,  not  to  meet  a  lover,  in  whose  soul  the  fires  of 
an  honorable  passion  burns,  but  to  meet  a  confessed  libertine, 
in  order  that  they  may  gratify  the  base  passions  of  their  own 
lascivious  nature.  Another,  guided  by  a  fatal,  foolish  love 
for  "  a  pretty  man,"  abandons  all  things  which  the  world 
regards  as  essential  to  happiness,  dooms  herself  to  the  life  of 
an  outcast — a  thing  to  be  scorned,  and  dies  for  love  of  him 
who  wrought  all  her  sorrow.  Are  these  not  trao;edies  in  real 
life?  And  yet  day  after  day,  night  after  night,  somewhere 
among  the  miles  and  miles  of  house-lined  streets,  such  social 
tragedies  are  played. 

But  what  can  we  expect  of  these  simple  and  innocent  ones, 
when  an  American  king  can  so  far  forget  his  dignity  as  to  play 
procurer  for  an  old  world  princeling?  Sometime  the  full 
measure  of  responsibility  for  these  sad  phases  of  metropolitan 
life  will  be  adjusted,  not  in  accordance  with  the  fallible 
judgment  of  men,  whose  senses  maybe  perverted  by  gold, 
but  by  an  infallible  decree  of  absolute  right  and  truth.  Ah ! 
who  then  will  stand?  Who  then  will  be  awarded  "  a  crown 
that  shall  outshme  the  stars  forever?"  Who?  Let  every 
voice  become  still.     Eternity  will  answer. 

Ninth  and  Tenth  Streets,  a  part  of  Eighth  Street,  and 
many  houses  on  Eleventh  Street,  and  indeed  nearly  all  that 
part  of  the  city  between  the  business  streets   and   Twelfth 


SOCIAL    L'NDEltCUIlRENTS.  455 

Street,  jDresent  a  striking  picture  of  the  Social  Undercurrents 
of  St.  Louis.  Not  that  there  are  not  some  respectable  and 
worthy  people  to  be  found  within  the  limits  we  have  indicated. 
But  there  is  a  strange  blending  of  the  good  and  the  bad — the 
old,  old  story,  the  wheat  and  the  tares  growing  together. 

He  who  would  see  must  open  his  eyes.  He  who  Avould 
learn  must  strive  ;  and  he  who  would  observe  must  place  him- 
self in  a  suitable  position  for  observation.  A  little  experience, 
as  an  amateur  detective,  will  reveal  knowledge  which,  perhaps, 
it  would  be  best  we  should  not  gain.  Th;  author  tried  the 
experiment,  and  obtained  the  knowledge. 

A  quiet,  June  night ;  time,  a  few  minutes  to  eleven  o'clock  ; 
place,  a  horse-car  on  the  Olive  Street  line,  near  Twenty-ninth 
Street,  enter  a  dark-eyed,  rosy-cheeked  maiden — perhaps 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  age,  modestly  attired  and 
lady-like  in  demeanor.  Why  does  she  want  to  go  down  town 
at  such  an  hour?  She  may  have  been  a  pretty,  servant  maid, 
but  her  manners  betra^-ed  a  station  something  above  the 
ordinary  servant  girl.  Reader,  let  us  observe  her  movements. 
Ninth  Street  is  reached.  She  signaled  the  conductor ;  the  ear 
stopped,  and  she  lightly  tripped  to  the  street  crossing.  We 
will  leave  the  car  here  also.  Let  us  cross  over  to  the  other 
corner,  under  the  shadow  of  the  trees  there.  There  she  stands 
near  the  corner.  She  is  waiting  for  some  one.  She  does  not 
have  to  M'ait  long.  A  young  m;ui  comes  up  the  street.  They 
meet.  The  clock  in  the  tower  of  a  church  not  far  away  tolls 
the  hour  of  eleven  just  as  they  disappear  in  the  door-way  of 
an  assignation  house  near  at  hand.  To-morrow  she  will  be 
demurely  performing  her  accustomed  duties.  Who  will  sus- 
pect that  she  is  a  sinner? 

AH  around  in  the  part  of  the  city  indicated,  we  shall  sec 
pairs  of  men  and  women  stealthily  coming  and  going,  till  far 
into  the  night. 

The  women  and  girls  who  visit  these  places  do  not  abide 
in  houses  of  ill-fame  as  a  general  rule.  They  come  from  all 
quarters  of  the  city,  sometunes  with  a  market  basket  on  then- 
arms.  Some  of  them  are  married  women,  some  are  grace- 
widows,  some  are  young  gn-ls,  and  some  wear  the  weeds  of 
mourniuo-. 


456  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

Of  course  all  these  have  male  paitners,  representing  nearly- 
all  classes,  conditions,  and  professions. 

The  casual  pedestrian  through  the  streets  will  obser\'e  on 
Morgan  Street  and  Washington  Avenue,  Locust,  Olive, 
Chestnut,  and  other  streets,  in  the  neighborhood  of  their  in- 
tersection with  Eighth,  Ninth,  Tenth  and  Eleventh  streets,  a 
number  of  "  Sample  Kooms,"  with  a  private  entrance  at  the 
rear,  with  these  words  conspicuously  painted  on  the  door  or 
just  above  it,  "  Ladies'  Entrance."  By  stepping  in  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  apartments  are  cut  up  into  little  stalls,  the  fronts 
of  which  are  draped  with  heavy  curtains,  which  may  be  drawn 
so  as  to  give  privacy  to  the  guests  on  the  inside.  These  little 
stalls  are  furnished  with  a  table  and  chairs.  Here  in  the 
evenings  come  women  and  girls  from  distant  parts  of  the  city 
and  meet  with  their  male  "friends."  Sometimes  these 
meetings  take  place  in  the  day  time,  and  the  women  who  are 
parties  to  them  are  the  wives  of  men  who  are  away  attending 
to  their  business. 

In  the  same  neighborhoods  the  observer  will  notice  many 
houses  with  a  small  tin  or  gilt  sign  attached  to  the  lintels 
which  reads,  "  Furnished  Booms  to  Rent."  It  appears  these 
houses  are  never  supplied  with  lodgers,  since  the  signs  are 
never  taken  down.  We  have  been  informed  that  all  of  these 
places  are  open  to  engagement  at  any  time  for  the  worshippers 
of  Venus.  Men  and  Vv'omen  make  their  engagements  while 
sipping  their  cobblers  in  the  stalls  of  the  sample  rooms,  and 
then  retire  to  one  of  these  "Furnished  Room"  houses 
together,  where  they  pass  a  few  hours  in  each  others  society, 
and  then  the  woman  comes  down,  takes  a  car  and  proceeds 
home,  while  the  man  very  often  passes  out  the  backway. 

Another  dodge  resorted  to  by  the  sinful  is  to  take  a  house, 
put  out  a  sign  "  Furnished  Rooms  to  Let,"  and  on  the  other 
lintel  of  the  door  "  Shirt  Making  and  Plain  Sewing."  Gentle- 
men have  an  excuse  to  call  about  getting  some  shirts  made 
or  sewing  done,  and  women  go  to  look  at  rooms.  Of  course 
they  meet  affinities  there  and  forget  all  about  the  shirts  and 
the  rooms.  To  judge  by  the  number  of  men  who  call  on 
account  of  shirt  making,  the  shirt  makers  ought  to  do  a 
thrivmg  business,  and  one  would  suppose  the  landlady  would 


SOCIAL    UNDERCURRENTS.  457 

soon  have  her  house  full  of  lodgers,  and  all  the  shirt  makers 
she  could  accommodate,  if  the  num])er  of  women  and  girla 
who  call  could  be  accepted  as  indicative  of  honest  motives  ou 
the  part  of  the  callers. 

In  some  sections  of  the  city  where  the  people  are  poor,  the 
immoral  girls  and  lecherous  youths  resort  to  lumber-yards, 
dark  alleys,  and  back  sheds  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying  their 
propensities.  If  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  visit  the  exten- 
sive lumber-yard  districts  of  the  northern  part  of  the  city  at 
twelve  o'clock  at  night  and  be  very  quiet  about  it,  he  will  see 
startling  evidences  of  the  general  demoralization  prevalent  in 
some  circles  of  society. 

We  have  said  nothing  of  a  very  numerous  class  of  women 
in  the  city  known  as  "  kept  women."  Of  these  there  may  ])e 
thousands.  Some  of  the  men  wdio  keep  these  mistresses  are 
married  men,  and  such  women  are  not  unfrequently  domiciled 
in  private  families  as  boarders.  Of  street-walkers  there  are 
hundreds  who  have  no  homes,  and  Avill  accept  a  night's 
lodging  from  any  dirty  tramp  who  can  afford  a  shelter  for 
the  niijht. 

Such  are  some  of  the  features  of  the  social  undercurrents 
in  the  seething  life  of  a  great  metropolis.  Like  3'ou  the 
picture?  Yet  it  is  painted  in  a  feeble  manner,  and  poorly 
portrays  the  reality. 


NIGHT  IN  THE  STREETS. 


THE  REVELATIONS  OF  THE  HOURS  OF  DARKNESS. 

The  deep-toned  bell  in  the  tower  of  St.  Francis  Xavier's 
Church  was  tolling  the  hour  of  11  o'clock  at  night.  But  the 
city  was  not  silent — indeed,  St.  Louis  is  never  silent ;  there 
comes  no  hour  when  all  her  inhabitants  are  quiet  in  sleep. 
It  was  a  dark  night — that  is,  it  was  moonless,  and  a  pall  of 
clouds  hung  above  the  city,  and  a  thick  mist  fell  into  the 
streets  and  hung  around  the  eaves  of  the  houses.  Such  nights 
are  not  known  in  the  country,  where  there  are  no  thousands  of 
chimney-pots  to  pour  out  their  sooty  volumes.  The  gas-lights 
cast  a  red  and  dismal  glare  against  the  mists  which  enveloped 
them.  And  yet  a  thousand  lights  flashed  from  windows  and 
shop  fronts  and  open  transoms,  and  the  city  was  not  gloomy, 
like  such  nights  would  be  away  on  the  prairies,  or  in  the 
humble  hamlet. 

It  was  at  the  corner  of  Locust  and  Eleventh  streets.  The 
tall  tower  and  imposing  walls  of  a  church  stood  like  giant  sen- 
tinels keeping  ward  and  watch  over  the  dusky  streets  above 
which  they  loomed.  There  she  stood,  in  the  shadow  of  the 
tower  of  the  church,  but  in  such  a  position  that  the  light  of  a 
street  lamp  fell  upon  her  features.  A  fair  and  fragile  girl — a 
mere  child,  perhaps  no  more  than  sixteen  years  of  age,  with  a 
wealth  of  soft  brown  hair  falling  about  her  shoulders,  and 
great  brown  eyes  peering  into  the  gloom  of  the  street.  She 
was  clad  in  such  garments  as  the  self-respecting  poor  can 
obtain.  She  was  very  still — so  still  that  a  stranger  hurr3nng 
by  might  have  mistaken  her  for  a  permanent  figure  carved 
from  wood  or  stone.  What  can  such  as  she  be  doing  out  there 
at  night?  Look  at  her  features.  Ah,  there  is  a  moisture  in 
the  glance — there  are  tear-drops  on  the  fair  cheeks,  there  is 

[458] 


NIGHT  IN  t:ie  streets.  459 

an  expression  of  agony  on  the  young  and  beautiful  faec — a 
look  of  determination  born  of  despair.  Poor  child  !  She  was 
somebody's  darling  once  !  Kow  what?  A  friendless  outcast, 
and  yet  no  sinner  ! 

The  great  pulsing  life  of  the  city  throl)bed  around  her ;  tlic 
hurrying  throng  surged  by  and  heeded  her  not.  Very  still 
and  quiet  she  waited  for  the  coming  of  some  one.  Was  it  man 
or  woman?  And  the  minutes  went  on,  while  she  waited. 
There  is  no  shame  in  paying  attention  to  such  life-pictures 
about  us.  The  expected  one  came.  A  prowling  she-wolf,  no 
doubt.  There  Ayas  a  brief  conversation.  Then  the  woman 
said,  "  But  what  can  you  do?  I  can  not  give  you  lodirinors 
without  you  do  it.  Besides,  he  is  a  nice  man,  with  plenty  of 
money,  and  you  will  have  a  splendid  time.  You  had  better  ! 
Say,  won't  you?     You're  real  foolish  !" 

There  was  one  who  looked  into  the  face  of  the  irirl.  It 
was  white  and  despairing,  and  the  lips  quivered,  and  the  bosom 
heaved,  and  she  exclaimed  in   a  low,  passionate  wail,  "Oh, 

Mrs. ,  w4iy  did  you  ask  me  to  come  here?     I  did  not 

know  you  would  have  me  do  wrong;  I  can  not;  oh,  God,  I 

will  not !"     The  words  were  lost  in  a  sob,  and  the  vouuj]: 

girl  started  forward  ;  the  wind  moaned  about  the  tall  church 
tower,  and  the  mists  fell  heavier  in  the  streets,  and  the  throngs 
rushed  along  with  a  quickened  pace,  and  the  fair  and  sinless 
child  passed  on — aw^ay  down  the  street — disappeared  in  the 
mist-veil  that  shrouded  the  city.  Her  companion,  a  hard- 
featured,  unsympathetic  being,  old  enough  to  have  been  her 
mother,  looked  after  the  retreating  figure  until  lost  to  her 
gaze,  and  muttering,  "  What  a  little  fool !"  she,  too,  passed 
on. 

It  was  a  little  street  drama,  one  of  a  series  played  during 
the  one  night  the  author  spent  in  the  streets  playing  the  role 
of  a  vagabond.  What  a  iiicture  of  life,  manners  and  morals. 
Where  is  the  old  sinner,  and  the  sinless  child  she  Avould  lead 
down  to  hell?  Where?  They  separated  that  night,  and  each 
went  her  way.  Will  the  sinless  one  remain  as  she  claimed  to 
be?  We  know  not.  We  have  related  only  what  we  saw  and 
heard. 


460  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

A  night  in  the  streets  of  St.  Louis  will  afford  many  oppor- 
tunities for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 

Franklin  Avenue  is  a  thoroughfare  which  presents  a  greater 
number  of  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  social  developments  in 
metropolitan  life  than  any  other  street  in  the  city — perhaps  in 
any  city.  Franklin  Avenue  of  a  Saturday  night  affords  a 
brilliant  panorama  of  the  lives  of  the  middle  and  working 
classes.  From  sunset  to  sunrise  Franklin  Avenue  affords  op- 
portunities for  acquiring  imj^ortant  information  to  the  student 
of  sociology — facts  which  can  be  ascertained  in  no  other  way. 
What  a  wonderful  street ! 

From  Fourth  Street  to  Leffingwell  Avenue,  a  distance  of 
two  miles,  Franklin  Avenue  is  lined  with  shops,  and  stores, 
and  saloons,  and  from  early  in  the  evening  until  the  hour  of 
midnight  it  is  thronged  by  people  of  all  ages,  sexes  and  con- 
ditions. It  seems  to  be  the  great  thoroughfare  of  the  masses 
in  going  from  the  business  quarters,  down  town,  to  the  resident 
districts  in  the  West  End. 

Franklin  Avenue  is  unlike  any  thoroughfare  in  any  Ameri- 
can city,  if,  indeed,  it  has  its  like  in  the  whole  world.  It  is 
not  an  aristocratic  shop-street,  and  yet  a  vast  amount  of  busi- 
ness is  transacted  in  it.  Aristocratic  people  in  public  affect  to 
despise  the  fabrics  from  Franklin  Avenue  stores,  while  they 
quietly  drop  in  and  patronize  them  in  private. 

At  7  o'clock  P.M.  the  sidewalks  of  Franklin  Avenue  bear  a 
constant  stream  of  humanity.  From  7  to  8  o'clock  the  larger 
proportion  of  the  people  met  on  the  street  are  mechanics,  and 
artisans,  and  laborers,  sewing  girls,  saleswomen,  and  women 
employed  in  down-town  factories,  with  an  intermixture  of 
boarding-house  keepers,  out  to  drive  a  bargain. 

At  9  o'clock,  and  from  that  time  till  past  10,  another  class, 
or,  rather,  other  classes,  take  possession  of  the  street.  These 
are  the  young  clerks,  and,  in  fact,  the  large  nondescript 
element  always  found  domiciled  in  the  city,  who  seem  to  have 
nothing  in  particular  to  do  and  plenty  of  time  to  saunter  on  the 
streets.  The  female  portion  of  the  great  surging  throngs  who 
travel  on  Franklin  Avenue  are  equally  as  nondescript  as  the  male 
portion.  Some  of  them  are  belated  saleswomen  ;  another  large 
section  of  them  are  servant  girls,  who  resort  thither  to  indulge 


NIGHT    IN    THE    STUEKTS.  4(51 

in  little  flirtations  with  the  troops  of  JioUe-de-hoys  always  to  be 
found  sauntering  on  the  streets.  The  freedom  of  manners  in- 
dulged in,  while  not  indecent,  or  even  bordering  upon  the  "flash 
style,"  informs  the  casual  passer-by  at  once  that  the  throngs 
on  Franklin  Avenue,  however  well  dressed  they  may  be,  are 
not  of  the  aristocracy  of  the  city. 

By  11  o'clock  the  crowds  of  hoydenish  servant  girls,  and 
many  girls  of  more  social  pretensions,  and  their  "  fellows," 
have  mostly  withdrawn,  and  the  street,  though  by  no  means 
deserted,  yet  presents  a  less  thronged  appearance. 

Below  Fifteenth  Street  the  stranger  will  meet  many  very 
well-dressed  and  decent-appearing  women  after  the  hour 
named  above.  These  are  "street-walkers  "  of  a  better  class 
than  those  encountered  on  Sixth  and  Seventh  streets.  They 
seldom  address  a  man  in  passing,  but  will  make  such  signals 
as  he  can  not  mistake.  Many  of  these  women  sew  during  the 
day,  or  at  least  a  part  of  the  day,  and  go  on  the  streets  to  get 
money  to  gratify  their  extravagant  love  of  dress.  Numbers 
of  them  have  rooms  in  the  "  furnished-room  houses,"  where 
no  questions  are  asked,  situated  on  Morgan,  Ninth,  Tenth, 
Eleventh,  Twelfth,  and  some  few  on  Wash  Street.  Of  course 
they  retire  as  soon  as  they  have  succeeded  in  "  picking  up  a 
friend,"  and  seldom  appear  for  a  second  promenade  on  Frank- 
lin Avenue  the  same  evening. 

After  12  o'clock  only  a  few  women  are  met  on  the  Avenue. 
These  are  mostly  walking  to  the  west,  and  are,  in  most  in- 
stances, young  girls,  in  pairs,  who  are  returning  to  the  homes 
they  have  disgraced,  after  keeping  engagements  M'ith  their 
"friends"  in  some  down-town  lodging-house.  It  is  easy  to 
ascertain  their  character  by  walking  in  the  same  direction  Avith 
them,  near  enough  to  hear  their  conversation,  which  they  arc 
not  at  all  careful  to  deliver  in  a  low  tone.  Sometimes  these 
young  female  tramps  may  be  encountered  on  the  Avenue, 
walking,  above  Twentieth  Street,  at  3  o'clock  in  the  moniing 
on  their  way  home,  where  they  Avill  make  up  a  story  to  tell  their 
mother  about  waiting  on  some  sick  companion  or  associate,  or 
some  other  equally  plausible  tale. 

Manv  of  the  down-town  saloons  are  all-night  houses. 
Weird,   strange  places — mere  dens   some  of   thom  arc — and 


462  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

these  are  patronized  by  some  of  the  worst  scoundrels  in 
America.  The  dives  of  this  character  are  generally  to  bo 
found  in  the  neighborhoods  of  bagnios,  steamboat  landings, 
railway  depots,  and  the  principal  market-places. 

The  wayfarer  at  3  o'clock  in  the  morning  would  do  well  to 
avoid  these  places.  A  stranger  would  be  almost  certain  to  be 
knocked  on  the  head  by  the  thieves  and  pickpockets  who 
make  these  "  all-night  houses  "  their  headquarters. 

One  night,  during  the  year  of  grace  1878,  the  author  of 
these  pages  resolved  to  spend  the  night  among  these  places. 
In  the  guise  of  a  vagabond,  his  best  friends  passed  him  by. 
With  a  limited  amount  of  cash,  a  keen  Spanish  dagger,  and  a 
firm  resolution  to  keep  his  eyes  open,  and  his  lips  reasonably 
close,  and  a  fixed  purpose  to  protect  himself,  but  avoid  difiicul- 
ties,  he  went  forth.  Vv^ell,  what?  In  one  saloon,  it  was  not 
far  from  Union  Market,  a  crowd  of  ill-looking  fellows  were 
playing  cards,  a  neat-looking  young  fellow  had  gone  to  dream- 
land on  a  chair,  and  a  pariah — his  friend,  they  said — quietly 
relieved  him  of  a  fat-looking  pocket-book.  Not  being  in  the 
service  of  the  city  of  schemes  and  charters,  and  likely  to 
get  more  blame  than  praise,  this  scribe  did  not  investigate. 
They  said  the  tramp  who  took  the  oinopotized  gentleman's 
pocket-book  was  that  personage's  friend  !  What  could  we  do? 
After  spending  half  an  hour  in  that  sooty  den  of  ill  odors, 
we  sought  another  place. 

On  Poplar  Street  there  are  several  places  which  keep  open 
doors.  Into  one  of  these  we  entered.  Time,  about  3  o'clock 
in  the  morninof.  There  were  four  or  five  miserable  wretches 
sitting  about,  and  a  yawning,  winking  man  leaning  over  the 
bar  counter.  We  were  another  tramp,  and  our  entrance,  with 
all  the  grimy  appearance  of  a  lately  returned  harvester,  aroused 
the  gentleman  of  the  saloon.  The  bar-keeper  straightened 
up.  "A  cigar,  iPyou  please,"  we  gently  suggested.  He 
set  down  a  box — villainous  excuses  for  cigars  they  were.  Then 
a  bummer,  who  had  managed  to  get  upon  his  feet,  came  for- 
ward to  inspect  the  features  of  this  author.  He  was  appar- 
ently satisfied.  "  Cahn't  yeou  set  hup  ha  fellah  ha  glahss  hof 
hale?"  "Mighty  near  out,  my  friend,"  was  the  answer. 
"  Wish  I  could  think  about  that  old  sons;  about  a  dollah  or 


NIGirr    IN    THE    STREETS.  4G3 

two,  you  know!  Let  me  sec,  I  b'licro  I've  one  more  nickel 
left.  No,  by  jucks,  it's  a  dime.  H:i,  ha,  we  can  get  the  ale." 
"Ha,  'ow  genteel.  Hi  say  there  hare  many  gentlemen 
whom  we  eonld  disconnt,  you  know,  if  we  hare  vagabonds. 
Now,  as  tq  the  song,  hi  think  Hi  cahn  give  yeou  that.  Let 
me  see.     Ha,  hi 'ave  hit."     And  he  sanjr : 

"  With  cautious  step  as  we  tread  our  way  through 

This  iutricate  world  as  other  folks  do, 
May  we  still  on  our  journey  be  able  to  view 

The  benevolent  face  of  a  dollar  or  two ; 
For  an  excellent  thing  is  a  dollar  or  two — 

No  friend  is  so  true  as  a  dollar  or  two  ; 
In  country  or  town  as  you  pass  up  and  down, 

No  passport  so  good  as  a  dollar  or  two. 

"Would  you  read  yourself  out  of  the  bachelor  crew, 

And  the  hand  of  some  female  divinity  sue, 
You  must  always  be  ready  the  handsome  to  do, 

Although  it  should  cost  you  a  dollar  or  two ; 
Love's  arrows  are  tipped  with  a  dollar  or  two, 

And  affection  is  gained  by  a  dollar  or  two ; 
The  best  aid  you  can  meet  in  advancing  your  suit, 

Is  the  eloquent  chink  of  a  dollar  or  two. 

*' Would  you  wi'ih  your  existence  with  faith  to  imbue 

Control  in  the  ranks  of  the  sanctified  few, 
Enjoy  a  good  name  and  a  well-cushioned  pew, 

You  must  surely  come  down  with  a  dollar  or  two. 
The  gospel  is  preached  for  a  dollar  or  two, 

Salvation  is  reached  by  a  dollar  or  two , 
You  may  sin  some  at  times,  but  the  woret  of  all  crimes 

Is  to  find  yourself  short  of  a  dollar  or  two." 

The  manner  of  execntion  of  this  song  "  brought  down  the 
house."  But  the  others  had  not  observed  what  we  had,  that 
the  singer  possessed  fine  dramatic  powers,  and  that  his  voice 
and  manner  betokened  one  who  had  seen  better  days.  His 
accent  was  not  at  all  cockney  in  the  song. 

*'Ale  for  one?" 

"Yes  !" 
"Ah,  yes,  a  glahss  of  hale  will  do  ha   fellah  good  hat  this 
time  hin  the  morning." 

We  modestly  suggested  that  it  might  not  be  so  beneficial 
after  all. 

"Well,"  dropping  the  cockney,  "I  do  not  know  but  you 


NIGHT    IN    THE    STREETS-  405 

are  ri2;lit.  I've  taken  cnouiih  to  (lout  :i  stcambo:it,  and  c-liani- 
pagne  enough  to  l)ankni|)t  a  millionaire.  "Well,  it  all  goes  in 
a  lifetime  anyhow.  One  time  I  was  not  the  man  you  see  me. 
I  was  rieh  and  honored.     Twieo  I  held  a  .seat  in  the  American 

Congress.     My   name  is ,  hut  pray  do 

not  mention  it  abroad.  There  are  those  ibr  whoso  sake  1 
would  not  be  known  as  in  my  present  eircumstances.  They 
think  I  am  with  a  friend  in  England.  I  haven't  a  penny,  and 
haven't  taken  food  sinee  yesterday  morning.  1  see  you  have 
not  come  from  the  race  of  vagabonds.  I  saw  that  as  soon  as 
you  came  in.  No  more  have  I.  But  what's  the  difference. 
1  may  get  some  swag  before  morning,  and  then  I  will  go  on  a 
bender." 

And  he  broke  forth  singing  : 

The  noblest  sorrow  man  can  feel, 

Is  pity  f.ir  liid  brotlier  man; 
To  bare  the  heart  before  the  .'teel, 

Throu<ih  all  of  life's  eventful  span. 

There  are  some  first-class  saloons  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
hotels  which  keep  their  bars  open  all  night.  Into  these  at 
dawn,  or  just  before,  the  genteel  tramps  enter  to  "  negotiate 
for  their  morning  bitters."  Sometimes  the  bar-keepers  "  can't 
see  it;"  and  when  the  genteel  persists,  they  "  give  them  a 
waltz  "  out  at  the  door.  The  accompanying  i)icture  represents 
the  interior  of  a  well-known  saloon  on  Chestnut  Street.  The 
neat-looking  individual  to  the  right,  who  "sports  a  plug  hat," 
etc.,  has  approached  the  bar-keeper  for  his  morning  dram, 
and  finds  negotiations  difiicult.  Just  before  the  patience  of 
the  bar-man  goes  to  tatters,  one  of  the  two  gentlemen  to  the 
left  proposes  "to  set  'em  up  "  for  the  gentleman  from  Jei-sey, 
at  which  the  bar-keeper  gives  him  a  mingled  look  of  gi-atitude 
and  astonishment — gratitude  for  his  generosity,  and  astonish- 
ment at  his  liberality. 

Such  scenes  as  that  illustrated  may  be  witnessed  any 
morning,  just  about  the  dawn,  in  the  first-class  saloons  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  great  hotels. 

If  one  determines  to  spend  a  night  in  the  street  and  among 
the  "all-night  houses,"  it  might  be  well  "to  take  in  "  a  part 
of    BroadwV*  Fourth,   Fifth,    Sixth,    Seventh,   Eighth    and 

30 


466  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Ninth  streets,  with  the  east  and  west  streets  intersecting  them, 
from  Franklin  Avenue  south  to  Spruce  Street.  In  this  dis- 
trict street-walkers  and  gamblers  do  most  abound.  The 
vicinity  of  the  large  hotels  are  favorite  waiting  places  for  the 
fallen  women  who  seek  their  prey  on  the  thoroughfares.  Sixth 
Street,  between  Washington  Avenue  and  Market  Street,  is 
much  used  by  these  degraded  beings.  Chestnut  Street,  from 
the  Court-house  to  Eleventh  Street,  is  also  a  much  traveled 
highway  of  bawds  after  nightfall. 

It  is  after  night  that  nearly  seven-eighths  of  the  larcenies 
and  burglaries  in  the  city  are  committed.  It  is  when  the  pall 
of  darkness  hanscs  above  the  2:reat  human  hive,  and  thousands 
are  quiet  in  the  embrace  of  the  deep  sleep  which  falleth  upon 
the  wearied  m  mind  and  body,  that  nearly  all  the  murders  are 
committed. 

A  working  man  receives  his  pay  and  seeks  shelter  ni  a 
levee  saloon  and  boarding-house.  Some  one  finds  out  that  he 
has  money — fifty  or  a  hundred  dollars.  They  induce  him  to 
drink — jjenferallv  a  not  difficult  task — and  the  next  morning 
his  mangled  body  may  be  found  stiff  and  cold  on  the  levee ; 
or  he  may  suddenly  and  mysteriously  disappear — the  dark 
river  is  convenient — and  no  one  will  be  very  likely  to  make 
much  effort  to  discover  his  fate.  He  was  only  a  deck-hand, 
may  be,  without  home  or  friends.  None  will  ever  know  his 
resting  place.     But  somewhere  may  be  heard  the  plaint : 

'  'He  comes  no  more, 
Rowing'  upon  the  river-tide." 

It  is  in  the  hours  of  darkness  that  the  burglar  steals  forth, 
with  "lock-picks  and  jimmies  and  skeleton-keys,  nippers  and 
wrenches,"  to  enter  the  houses  of  the  unsuspecting,  "blow  a 
bank,"  or  "crack  a  strong  box."  It  is  in  the  hours  of  dark- 
ness that  the  libertine  seeks  his  prey  ;  in  this  night-time,  when 
honest  men  slumber,  and  the  virtuous  are  at  rest,  the  deceiver 
goes  forth  on  his  mission  to  destroy.  It  is  needful  that  there 
should  be  a  Devil  and  an  "awful  hell,"  after  the  orthodox 
pattern,  in  order  that  hoary  old  sinners,  whose  rank,  wealth 
and  character  intervene  to  protect  from  froAvns  and  l)lows,  and 
all  the  "deep  hell"  of  retribution  in  time.     In  the  shadowy 


NIGHT    IN    THE    vSTREETS.  467 

night  "the  drink-crazed  fool"  goes  to  the  den  of  the  de- 
stroyer and  commits  a  deed  with  knife  or  pistol  that  leads 
him  at  last  up  the  steps  of  the  hangman's  gallows.  It  is  in 
the  night-time  that  the  deeds  which  we  find  chronicled  in  the 
journals,  after  the  following  style,  happen:  "A  policeman 
fatally  stabbed  in  a  saloon."  "An  awful  tragedy — a  man 
disembowels  his  wife  last  night."  "A  nmrder  on  the  levee." 
"A  startling  crime."  "Robbery  in  a  den  on  Almond  Street." 
"A  row  in  a  low  dive — one  man  fatally  injured."  "Bad  fel- 
lows at  Castle  Garden."  "A  cutting  aflVay  on  St.  Charles 
Street."  "A  mysterious  affair."  "The  Orchard  murder," 
and  a  hundred  other  pecadillos  and  crimes,  all  take  place  in 
the  night.  Take  up  the  morning  pai:)er ;  what  do  you  see? 
Ah,  there  columns  of  accounts  of  crimes  which  happened  last 
night ;  and  so  day  after  day,  and  weeks  and  months, grow  into 
years,  and  the  record  is  a  repetition  of  the  old  Story  of  the 
crimes  that  were  committed  last  night. 

In  the  gray  dawn,  wearied  and  worn  by  the  sights  and 
scenes  of  that  "last  night"  in  the  streets,  the  author  with- 
drew.    But  still 

"  Now  and  then,  in  the  dim-gray  dawn, 

As  I  looked,  and  round,  all  round  the  house  I  beheld 

The  death-white  curtains  drawn; 
Felt  a  horror  o'er  me  creep 

Prick'd  my  skin  and  caught  my  breath, 
Knew  that  the  death-white  curtains  meant  but  sleep, 

Yet  I  shuddered  and  thought  like  a  fool  of  the  sleep  of  death." 

They  were  haunting  memories  of  the  night  scenes  which  I 
had  surveyed. 


THE  CRIMES  OF  A  GREAT  CITY. 


SOME  PECULIARITIES  OF  MURDERERS. 

«*  I  remember  a  very  interesting  criminal  case.     It  occurred 
many  years  ago . ' ' 

These  words  were  addressed  to  the  author  by  a  gentleman 
long  connected  with  the  secret  police  service,  and  afterward 
the  Chief  of  Police  of  St.  Louis,  one  evening,  as  avc  sat  on  the 
sidewalk,  in  a  couple  of  chairs,  tete-a-tete,  in  front  of  his  place 
of  business. 

"Yes,"  he  continued,  musingly,  "I  remember  the  case 
well.  The  fellow  was  hung  in  the  old  jail-yard,  where  the 
Laclede-Bircher  hotel  now  stands.  A  most  adroit  and  accom- 
plished burglar  named  Wilson  was  wanted  for  some  enter- 
prises in  which  he  had  been  engaged.  Wilson  resided  on 
Chambers  Street,  and  kept  a  mistress,  or  wife,  in  a  house  just 
above  Eleventh  Street,  if  I  remember  correctly.  A  detail 
was  made  to  work  up  the  case,  and  the  boys,  a  sergeant  and 
two  men,  went  to  the  house  one  night  for  the  purpose  of  cap- 
turing hira.  They  effected  an  entrance  into  the  house,  and  as- 
they  had  anticipated,  they  failed  to  find  any  tenants,  Wilson 
being  out  on  a  job.  The  officers  quietly  ensconced  themselves 
in  the  house  to  await  the  return  of  their  expected  prey.  The 
night  wore  away,  and  the  burglar  had  not  retui'ued.  About 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  sergeant  told  the  men  to  go 
home,  or  somewhere,  and  get  breakfast.  While  they  vrerc 
gone  Wilson  and  a  pal  returned,  and  finding  a  sergeant  of 
police  in  the  house,  they  commenced  a  mortal  combat,  which 
resulted  in  Wilson  drawing  a  pistol  and  sending  a  bullet 
through  the  head  of  the  sergeant,  and  he  fell  dead  in  the  room 
where  the  struggle  took  place.  Wilson  and  his  companion 
then  fled,  and  escaped   arrest  for  a  short  time  only,  as  the 

[4G8] 


CRIMES    OV    A    GREAT    CITY. 


401) 


affair  created  :i  good  deal  of  excitement,  at  the  time,  and  Uil- 
sou  was  very  Avell  known  to  the  police  authorities  of  tliis  and 
other  cities. 

"Well,  he  was  capti:red  and  had  his  trial,  wliich  resulted 
in  a  verdict  of  guilty  of  murder  in  the  fust  degree,  and  ho 
was  sentenced,  and  finally  hung  in  the  old  jail-yard,  near 
Sixth  and  Chestnut  streets. 


OLD  JAIL,  WHERE  WILSON   WAS  EXECLl  KD. 

"Wilson's  'woman,'  A\dio  was  very  shrewd,  indeed,  one  of 
the  hardest  cases  I  ever  knew,  was  devotedly  attached  to  him, 
and  made  most  strenuous  efforts  to  save  him  from  the  extreme 
penalty  of  the  law  ;  she  appealed  to  the  citizens,  got  up  peti- 
tions, and  finally  made  a  last  effort  by  personally  appealing  to 
the  Governor.  It  was  all  in  vain.  Ilcr  'man'  was  hung. 
The  blow  fell  with  terrible  effect  upon  her.  She  who  had  been 
so  reckless,  so  disregardful  of  consequences,  was  completely 
broken  down.  After  the  burial  of  the  remains  of  lu>r  '  man,' 
she  expressed  a  purpose  to  enter  the  house  of  the  (lood  Shep- 
herd, and  there  end  her  days  as  a  penitent  and  Magdalene. 
She  disappeared  from  her  accustomed  places  in  the  city,  and 
none  knew  what  had  become  of  her.  I  sujiposo  she  kept  her 
resolve." 


470  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

The  story  of  the  former  officer  was  completed.  The  sequel 
is  easily  related.  The  poor  heart-broken  sinner  retired  to  the 
penitential  retreat,  and  many  years  afterward  was  recognized 
by  one  of  the  few  visitors  who  ever  penetrate  into  the  recesses 
within  those  walls,  among  the  Magdalenes,  an  humble  Chris- 
tian, who  had  forsaken  her  sins  and  the  world  together.  There 
may  be — and  in  the  case  related  there  was — deep  affection 
existing  between  the  criminal  man  and  sinful  woman,  a  devo- 
tion to  him  on  her  part  which  we  rarely  find  exemplified  among 
people  who  are  much  above  them  in  station.  Even  sinners 
may  love  and  be  faithful. 

A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  startlingly  sensational  murder 
committed  in  an  orchard,  some  nine  miles  from  the  center  of 
the  city.  It  was  the  topic  for  comment  for  more  than  the 
traditional  nine  days.  A  farmer  had  heard  some  strange 
noises  in  his  orchard  in  the  night  time,  and  was  on  the  point 
of  investisratino:  the  cause.  But  as  the  noises  Avere  discon- 
tinued,  he  allowed  the  affiiir  to  pass  until  morning. 

In  the  gray  of  the  morning  he  went  forth  to  discover  the 
cause  of  the  cries  which  had  disquieted  him.  Out  under  an 
orchard  tree,  with  blood  upon  the  grass  and  weeds  around  her, 
lay  the  stifi",  cold  form  of  a  girl — murdered  there  in  the  hours 
of  darkness.  The  police  authorities  were  notified  at  once,  the 
coroner  was  summoned,  and  while  he  was  proceeding  to  hold 
an  inquest,  the  detectives  and  policemen  were  w^orking  up  the 
case.  It  was  not  long  until  the  murdered  woman  was  recog- 
nized as  having  been  an  inmate  of  a  bagnio  on  Green  Street, 
and  was  there  known  as  Ida  Buckley.  Of  course  her  history 
was  then  easily  traceable.  She  had  always  lived  in  St.  Louis  ; 
had  contracted  an  unfortunate  marriage  ;  had  separated  from 
her  husband,  and  had,  in  fact,  gone  to  the  bad. 

The  mystery  to  be  solved  was,  how  she  came  to  be  away 
out  there  ;  who  was  her  murderer,  and  what  could  have  been 
the  motive.  She  had  been  seen  at  the  hagnio  sStar  11  o'clock 
the  preceding  night.  She  had  some  friends  to  call  upon  her 
that  niirht — amonj?  them  a  youns:  man — said  to  be  a  cousin  of 
hers.  She  had  danced  with  him,  and  retired  to  her  room  with 
him  ;  they  had  sat  and  talked  together  for  quite  a  while  in  the 
most  amicable  manner  in  the  presence  of  others.     The  people 


CRIMES    OF    A    GREAT    CITY.  471 

about  the  bnr/nio  hiid  last  seen  her  in  company  with  lier  cousin, 
John  McNearv.  They  disappeared  from  the  house  at  about 
the  same  time.  Another  person  had  seen  a  wagon  pass  aloii"- 
Olive  Street  about  Eleventh  Street,  and  identified  the  wa-ron 
as  one  used  by  McNeary.  Further  out,  another  witness  had 
met  a  wagon  with  three  persons,  one  of  whom  appeared  to  be 
a  woman,  who  was  seemingly  struggling  with  the  other  per- 
sons. Some  persons  were  witnesses  to  other  incidents,  and 
the  McNearys  were  arrested  and  committed  to  jail.  After 
behig  duly  indicted,  they  were  placed  on  trial,  and  final  I  v, 
within  little  more  than  a  year  after  the  murder,  after  lia\  ing 
been  twice  arraigned,  with  two  mis-trials,  the  case  of  John 
McNeary,  the  cousin  of  the  girl,  the  last  person  seen  witli  her 
before  that  mysterious  journey  to  the  farmer's  orchard  in  the 
dead  of  night,  and  to  that  tragic  death  which  awaited  her  in 
the  light  of  the  stars  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  was  con- 
tinued generally,  and  he  was  liberated  from  the  custody  of  the 
officers  of  the  law.     Ida  Buckley  was  not  avenged  bv  the  law. 

One  night  not  many  years  ago,  was  enacted  a  tragedy 
which  led  to  an  execution  in  the  Four  Courts  prison  yard, 
which  has  already  become  a  part  of  the  history  of  that  already 
noted  place. 

It  happened  in  an  upper  chamber  of  a  little  two-story 
frame  building  which  still  disfigures  Franklin  Avenue,  in  the 
block  between  Twentieth  and  Twenty-First  streets,  north  side. 
John  Patrick  O'Shea,  a  laboring  man,  returned  to  his  humble 
abode  that  fatal  night  under  the  influence  of  whisky.  He  and 
his  wife  did  not  agree  very  well,  and  when  he  was  partly  in- 
toxicated he  was  accustomed  to  abuse  and  beat  her  without 
mercy.  On  this  particular  night  John  Patrick  was  more  fault- 
finding and  disagreeable  than  usual.  The  result  was  a  family 
broil,  during  which  he  drew  a  knife  and  completely  disem- 
boweled the  woman  whom  he  had  vowed  to  love  and  cherish, 
the  Avoman  who  had  l)orne  his  children.  Mrs.  O'Shea  fell 
across  a  bed  and  expired  some  hours  afterward.  Tin;  wiCc- 
slayer  was  arrested,  committed  to  jail,  indicted  in  due  time, 
and  finally  brought  to  the  bar  of  the  Criminal  Court,  tried  by 
a  jury  of  his  peers,  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  die. 

One  day  an  anxious  throng  gathered  in  the  neighborhood 


472  TOUK    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

of  the  Four  Courts.  A  hundred  persons  or  more  who  had 
been  provided  with  passes,  were  admitted  to  the  prison  yard 
where  the  dismal  skeleton-lil^e  frame  of  the  "drop  of  death" 
was  erected,  and  the  unsympathetic  officers  of  the  law  headed 
and  brought  up  the  rear  of  a  little  procession,  which  moved 
out  of  the  jail-court  into  the  yard.  In  the  midst  of  the  pro- 
cession walked  John  Patrick  O'Shea,  and  by  his  side  a  priest. 
Up  the  rude  steps  he  marched  until  he  stood  under  the  gal- 
lo\vs-l)eam,  with  the  fatal  noose  dangling  about  his  neck.  The 
last  prayer  was  said,  the  roi)e  was  adjusted,  the  sable  cap  was 
drawn  over  his  face,  and  in  an  instant  he  sprang  through  the 
fatal  death-trap.  A  few  contortions,  a  few  convulsive  shud- 
ders, and  all  was  over.  The  wife-slayer  was  a  corpse,  and  the 
children  were  orphans. 

Some  3^ears  ago  an  old  man  named  Anton  Ilolmc  went  to  a 
house  on  South  Fourth  Street,  Avhcre  his  wife,  from  whom  he 
was  separated,  was  stopping,  some  time  after  ten  o'clock  at 
night.  The  two  engaged  in  a  quarrel,  and  Ilobne  stabbed  the 
woman  to  the  heart.  Death  almost  immediately  ensued. 
Holme  gave  himself  up,  or  was  arrested,  the  same  night,  and 
afterwards  he  was  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged. 
The  case  was  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court,  and,  after  various 
delays,  the  sentence  was  finally  commuted  to  imprisonment  for 
life. 

One  morning  in  the  summer  of  1878  a  saloon  keeper  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Levee  and  Market  Street,  discovered  a  ghastly 
corpse  lying  on  the  crest  of  the  Levee,  to  which  place  it  had 
been  dragged  for  some  distance  from  the  sidewalk.  It  had 
evidently  been  the  intention  of  the  murderers  to  conceal  the 
remains  of  their  victim  in  the  oozy  bed  of  the  ]Mississipi:)i, 
and  they  would  have  no  doubt  succeeded  but  for  the  presence 
of  a  watchman  on  one  of  the  wharfboats.  The  name  of  the 
murdered  man  was  ascertained  to  be  Henry  Seymour,  and  he 
had  been  drink iiiir  in  a  neighboring  saloon  as  late  as  eleven 
o'clock  the  night  before.  It  came  out  also,  in  evidence  before 
the  Coroner,  that  the  man  Avas  in  all  probability  murdered  for 
three  dollars!  No  clue  to  the  identity  of  the  murderers  was 
ever  obtained.  Henry  Seymour  was  a  common  laborer  and  a 
stranjrer. 


CRIMES    OF    A    GREAT    CITY.  473 

The  saddest  murders  of  all,  the  crimes  of  deepest  damna- 
tion, is  the  exposure  and  sometimes  the  cruel  slaughter  of  in- 
fants. Some  years  ago  a  notorious  woman  named  Fortmejer 
maintained  an  estahlishment  in  which  infanticide  was  carried 
on  as  a  trade.  The  death  of  a  young  girl  who  had  entered  the 
place  to  procure  an  abortion,  led  to  an  investigation  -which  re- 
sulted in  revealing  a  vast  record  of  iniquities  practiced  by  the 
woman  Fortmeyer.  The  bones  of  lately  cremated  innocenta 
were  raked  from  the  stove  furnace.  They  had  been  cast, 
while  yet  alive,  into  the  glowing  tire,  and  their  feeble  wails 
were  heard  l)y  the  unfeeling  wx)man,  and  by  Ilim  who  iioteth 
the  sparrow's  fall. 

"Bal)y  farming"  is  practiced  to  some  extent  in  the  city, 
but  not  in  a  way  to  attract  very  much  attention  from  the  pub- 
lic, and  3'^et  there  are  dark  transactions  takmg  jilace  every  day 
of  which  the  great  world  knows  naught,  and  yet  they  are  crimes 
w^hich  might  well  make  devils  shudder. 

AVe  have  only  sketched  a  few  of  the  peculiarities  which 
characterize  criminals  in  this  city.  Only  a  few  samples  are 
given  out  of  the  hundreds,  nay,  thousands,  of  smiilar  deeds 
which  have  been  committed  and  still  continue  to  be  committed 
almost  every  day  somewhere  in  the  dirty  alleys,  m  the  grimy 
dives,  in  the  shadowy  places  by  the  river  side  One  day  wo 
read  of  a  mysterious  disappearance,  the  next  week  the  river 
3'ields  its  ghastly  secret,  and  "the  floater"  tells  the  fate  of  our 
neiirhbor.  "The  secrets  of  a  pond,"  the  bloated  and  swollen, 
house  of  the  soul,  deserted  and  putrid,  and  horrible,  come  to 
reveal  the  fate  of  some  one  "missed  at  home."  Crimes  black 
as  hell,  are  committed  in  the  dark,  still  hours,  and  Ave  hear 
of  some  one  who  strangely  disappeared,  but  never  of  how  ho 
came  to  go  away,  and  never  of  why  he  returns  again  no  more. 

So  the  voices  of  the  high  life,  and  the  low  life,  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  palace  and  the  miseries  of  the  hovels,  the  synipa- 
thizin"'  si<ih  of  anijels  of  love  and  mercv,  and  the  horrid  oaths 
und  bitter  laughter  of  devils  in  crime,  ascend  together  at  the 
feame  instant  from  the  midst  of  the  great  city  to  the  court  of 
Him  who  sitteth  on  a  great  white  throne. 


GAMBLEBS. 


THE    PROFESSIONALS  — GAMBLING  HELLS  IN  ST. 

LOUIS. 

St.  Louis  can  not  claim  entire  exemption  from  those  evils 
which  are  supposed  to  be  developed  in  the  largest  measure  in 
Baden-Baden,  Monaco,  Gaudalaxara,  and  New  York  and 
Washington.  The  gamblers  are  here,  not  in  pairs,  but  in 
scores  and  hundreds.  They  infest  the  business  portion  of  the 
city.  On  Fourth  Street  are  situated  some  of  the  finest 
"gambling  hells"  of  the  city.  On  Fifth  and  Sixth  streets 
are  numerous  houses,  where  the  silly  and  the  "  duifers"  go  to 
dispose  of  whatever  money  they  may  possess.  On  some  of 
the  streets  running  west  are  to  be  found  some  of  the  finest 
houses.  To  say  that  there  are  any  elegantly  or  gorgeously 
furnished  gambling  houses  in  St.  Louis  would  be  not  strictly 
true.  There  are  some  decently  furnished  faro  and  keno  apart- 
ments, and  some  very  respectable  "poker  rooms."  But  the 
situation  here  does  not  permit  the  sporting  fraternity  to 
indulge  in  elegant  furniture — it  might  be  broken  up  by  the 
"peelers." 

These  gambling  places  are  open  to  the  right  kind  of  visi- 
tors, both  day  and  night.  The  principal  games  indulged  in  are 
faro,  keno,  poker  and  rouge  et  noir.  In  the  squares  adjacent 
to  Sixth  and  Chestnut,  and  up  Sixth  to  Olive  Street,  there  are 
lialf  a  dozen  or  more  gambling  houses. 

The  keepers,  and  more  fortunate  habitues  of  these  places, 
may  be  met  almost  any  pleasant  afternoon  about  the  comers 
of  the  principal  thoroughfares,  ogling  the  passing  ladies,  and 
"perusing  the  style  of  the  times."  Some  of  these  fellows 
are  scions  of  aristocratic  families  in  the  city,  and  on  a  favor- 
able corner  on  Fourth  Street,  will  be   recognized,  bowed  to 

[474] 


GAMBLERS.  475 

and  smiled  at  by  more  tlmn  one  "liigli  stepping  damsel  "  from 
the  palaces  of  Lucas  Place  and  the  AVest  End.  We  have 
wondered  Avhethcr  these  jonnir  ladies  would  be  qnite  so  free 
in  the  bestowal  of  their  smiles  if  they  knew  that  those  favored 
by  them  were  so  "very  fly" — that  is,  gamesters  and  debau- 
chees of  the  lowest  instincts,  and  that  the  corner  loafers  all 
wonder  what  fresh  heart-crushing  Aspasia  has  come  to  town. 
They  never  suspect  she  is  a  lady.  She  smiled  at  "Ben,  the 
Bouncer. ' ' 

Many  gamblers  are  strictly  men  of  business  ;  sober  as 
Puritans  and  grave  as  parsons.  These  go  about  their  trade 
very  much  in  the  same  manner  that  a  lawyer  would  go  to  his 
oflSce,  or  a  doctor  to  his  patients.  There  are  several  of  this 
character  in  town — some  of  whom  have  acquired  considerable 
estates,  have  well-regulated  families,  who  attend  fashi()nal)le 
up-town  churches.  This  class  generally  dress  faultlessly,  and 
assume  aristocratic  airs  in  manner  and  bearing.  They  are,  as 
a  rule,  honorable  and  correct,  accordirig  to  the  wavs  of  the 
v/orld.  They  have  houses  of  their  own,  and  seldom  play  a 
game,  contenting  themselves  with  percentages,  etc. 

There  is  another  class  of  gamblers  who  are  "on  the  Hv." 
These  mav  be  described  as  o-amblins:  loafers.  The  successful 
gambler,  who  has  "won  his  pile,"  delights  in  taking  his  ease. 
In  the  language  of  a  writer  in  the  Journal,  the  gambling 
loafers  as  a  class  are  those  "who  have  been  lucky  enough  to 
win  an  abundance  of  money,  or  else  those  who  are  'broke.'  " 
Gamblers  who  have  but  little  money  are  so  eager  to  acquire 
more  that  they  have  not  time  to  play  the  loafer  ;  or,  as  they 
express  it,  "their  business  requires  more  capital,"  and  there- 
fore they  must  be  up  aiid  doing. 

"The  jramblino;  loafer  is  noticeable  from  his  cfeneral  '  2;et- 
up,' regardless  of  expense — snow-white  shirt,  elegantly-fitting 
dress  and  fine  jewelry.  He  is  too  smart  a  man  of  the  world 
not  to  buy  the  best  of  everything  Avhen  he  has  mone}',  sis  he 
is  perfectly  well  aware  that  in  case  he  should  get  broke  he  can 
soak  his  outfit  at  his  '  uncle's,'  who  has  throe  gilt  balls  for  a 
sio-n.  When  a  loafer  of  this  class  is  full  rigged,  he  sails  up 
and  down  the  streets  with  the  air  of  a  nabob,  putting  the  style 
and  airs  of  the  wealthy  loafers  (who  try  to  imitate   him)  far 


476  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

in  the  shade.  These  fellows  care  not  for  the  worldng  girls  ; 
they  flv  for  higher  game,  and  seek  alliances  with  3'ouiig  l:idie3 
of  the  first  families,  in  which  thej  arc  not  infrequently 
successful.  , 

"These  loafers    are  not  much  in  the  way  while  they  arc 

*  flush,'  for  they  are  in  the  best  of  humor  with  themselves 
and  every  one  else.  They  make  a  practice,  on  matinee  (\:\ys, 
of  standing  on  street  corners  to  see  if  they  can't  catch  a 
girl  who  is  rich  and  handsome.     Their  nights    are  sjjcnt  in 

*  high-toned'  bagnios^  where,  Avitli  wine  and  women,  they 
pass  the  time  away  pleasantly  themselves,  and  to  the  infinite 
delight  of  the  madame  and  her  immoral  boarders. 

* 'But  the  broken  gambler.  Poor  fellow.  lie  has  been  in 
funds  in  his  time,  and  has  as  exquisite  a  taste  as  his  more  for- 
tunate professional  brother,  but  he  is  forced  from  sheer  neces- 
sity to  wear  threadbare  clothes,  jerk  lager  beer  lunches  in  the 
more  disreputable  parts  of  the  citjs  and  sleep — well,  ho  don't 
often  sleep,  except  in  a  chair  in  an  obscure  corner  of  come 
one  of  the  <  all-night'  saloons,  unless  a  brother  chip  has 
compassion  enough  to  give  him  a  quarter  or  a  half  with  which 
to  go  to  a  lodging-house.  The  broken  'gamb'  haunts  beer 
and  other  saloons,  and  if  a  'sucker'  drops  in,  and  wants  to 
play  a  game  for  the  beer,  he  is  alwaj^s  in,  and  when  the  bar- 
tender or  owner  of  the  saloon  comes  to  serve  them,  he  slips 
some  money  into  the  hands  of  the  broken  sport,  who"  induces 
the  greeny  to  play  for  a  little  stake,  Avhicli  ends  in  the  sucker 
losing,  the  sport  playing  'advantages'  on  him.  Of  course 
the  sport's  staker  gets  his  money  back  and  half  of  the  win- 
nings. In  this  way  the  poor  fellow  manages  to  eke  out  an 
existence  until  he  strikes  some  fellow  with  a 'pile,'  when  he 
gets  hold  of  a  pretty  good  'stake,'  then  he  quits  these  haunts 
and  appears  among  the  gentlemen  sports.  lie  plays  faro  bank 
(which  is  the  squarest  game  on  earth  if  dealt  'on  the 
square'),  and  if  he  is  lucky,  wins  a  bundle,  and  aj^pears  on 
the  street  as  a  'high-toned  galoot'  and  exquisite.  If  he 
loses,  he  settles  back  into  the  old  groove  and  bides  his  time." 

So  the  game  goes  on — we  mean  the  game  of  life,  with  all 
its  chances  and  changes,  and  ups  and  downs,  fraught  with 
pleasures   to   some   and  with  woe  to   many.       So,    too,    the 


GAMBLERS.  477 

gamblers  carry  on  Ihcir  nefarious  traffic,  and  night  after  night, 
crowds  gather  in  the  houses  of  this  c'ty,  some  of  ^^  hom  will 
not  depart  until  they  arc  "cleaned  out,"  that  is  wrecked  and 
ruined. 

!Many  of  the  houses  arc  mere  swindling  contrivances, 
where  nothing  is  done  "  on  the  square,"  but  every  device  of 
roguery  is  resorted  to  in  order  to  Ileccc  the  victims  who  may 
be  lured  within  these  dens  of  thieves. 

Is  there  no  law  against  gambling?  Plenty  of  laws,  l)ut 
somehow  the  fact  that  the  demoralizinc"  business  is  conducted 
in  scores  of  houses  in  the  principal  streets,  seems  not  to  be  so 
well  known  to  the  very  excellent  and  honorable  Doard  of 
Polico  Commissioners  as  it  might  be,  for  some  occult  reason 
not  publicly  known.  Anyhow,  the  gambling  goes  on,  inter- 
rupted only  by  occasional  raids,  after  the  gamblers  luivo 
received  intimations  from  some  mysterious  source,  and  have 
quietly  stored  away  their  "  fine  sets  of  tools."  The  i)()lice  on 
these  raids,  as  a  general  rule,  secure  a  lot  of  connnon  })ine-wood 
deal  tables,  wooden  chips,  cheap  urns  and  tin  card  boxes. 
The  raids  do  not  interrupt  the  game  very  long.  After  mid- 
night the  "fine  tools"  are  brought  out,  and  the  most  "rat- 
tling  games  "  are  played. 

And  when  the  morning  comes,  some  there  will  be  who  will 
realize  their  misfortune,  and  curse  their  folly  for  venturing 
into  the  toils  of  the  spoilers. 


DRINKING   CUSTOMS. 


WHISKY  PALACES  AND  WINE  AND  BEER  HALLS. 

One  Saturday  evening  a  very  respectable  appearing  lady 
came  into  a  West  End  grocery  store,  and  gave  orders  for  quite 
an  amount  of  groceries,  all  of  the  choicest  qualities.  The  pro- 
prietor waited  on  the  lady  himself.  When  she  had  completed 
her  purchases  the  grocery-man,  feeling  a  desire  to  express  his 
appreciation  of  her  patronage,  very  politely  inquired  if  she 
would  take  a  glass  of  soda  or  cordial.  The  lady  replied  that 
she  did  not  care  for  soda  or  liqueur,  but  that  if  she  took  any- 
thing she  would  thank  him  for  a  glass  of  beer.  The  grocery- 
man  at  once  retired  to  the  saloon  at  the  rear  of  the  store  and 
returned  with  a  sort  of  Gambrinus  drinking  glass  overflowing 
with- foamy  lager  beer,  Avhich  the  lady  took  and  quaffed  evi- 
dently with  great  satisfaction. 

This  incident  resulted  in  the  author's  making  quite  exten- 
sive inquiries,  and  the  result  was  the  formation  of  an  opinion 
that  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  women  of  the  city,  including 
all  classes,  orders  and  conditions,  are  beer  drinkers.  Very 
respectable  people,  not  addicted  to  visiting  saloons,  will  send 
for  pitchers  or  buckets  of  beer,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the 
other  third  drink  wines  on  some  occasions. 

Large  as  is  the  consumption  of  distilled,  vinous  and  fer- 
mented liquors,  in  the  public  drinking  saloons  and  halls,  of 
which  there  are  upwards  of  twenty-five  hundred  in  the  city,  yet 
that  amount  does  not  represent  the  whole  of  the  consumption 
in  the  city.  Private  drinking  in  homes  is  very  extensively  in- 
dulged in.  Many  persons  always  keep  a  stock  of  liquors  on 
hand  in  their  wine  cellars  for  home  consumption. 

Formerly  beer  was  regarded  as  a  beverage  almost  exclu- 
sively indulged  in  by  people  of  German  origin.     That  is  not 

[478] 


DRINKING    CUSTOMS.  479 

true.  The  consumption  of  lieer  is  promoted  hy  all  classes. 
Americans,  Irishmen,  Swedes,  Italians  and  Frenchmen,  and 
women  of  all  nationalities  and  in  all  classes  of  society,  drink 
more  or  less  of  the  Teutonic  beverage,  lager  beer. 

Notwithstanding  the  almost  universal  practice  of  beer  sip- 
ping, and  drinking  wine  and  whisky,  indulged  in  by  the  inhai)- 
itants  of  St.  Louis,  it  has  been  remarked  that  drunkenness  is 
not  extensively  prevalent. 

Americans  down  town  who  patronize  the  magniticent  palaces 
to  be  found  in  the  parts  of  the  city  adjacent  to  the  principal 
hotels,  the  Chamber  of  (Commerce  and  the  Court-house,  and 
the  principal  streets  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  drink  whisky  and 
brandy  Indeed,  in  this  respect,  representatives  of  all  the 
nations  which  have  contributed  to  our  population  may  be 
found  at  these  elegant  bars  taking  their  whisky  and  brand v, 
toddies,  punches  and  cock-tails.  The  first-class  drinking  sa- 
loons do  not  keep  beer. 

In  some  of  the  principal  streets  are  to  be  found  great  beer 
halls  provided  with  chairs  and  tables,  at  which  customers  seat 
themselves  and  leisureW  quaff  the  nectar  of  Gambrinus.  In 
the  mirror-enclosed  palaces  the  customer  finds  no  chairs  in  the 
main  bar-room,  but  there  are  handsomely  furnished  apartments 
connected  with  them,  where  a  party  can  be  as  private  as  at 
their  own  rooms.  There  are  some  saloons  that  can  not  bo 
classed  among  first-class  whisky  shops,  or  among  the  beer  halls 
and  wine  rooms.  In  these  places  they  sell  all  kinds  of  litpiors, 
including  beer,  and  it  is  not  unfrequent  that  a  little  table  and 
a  few  chairs  are  found  within  them.  The  picture  represents  a 
first-class  establishment  of  this  mixed  character,  nnich  fre- 
quented by  theater-goers  and  persons  addicted  to  out-door 
sports.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  two  friends  are  indulg- 
ing in  a  "little  game  of  draw-poker,"  the  place  is  sufficiently 
respectable  to  be  patronized  on  occasions  by  our  leading  citi- 
zens, especially  those  of  political  proclivities. 

It  will  not  be  difficult  for  one  familiar  with  the  faces  coH' 
stantly  met  on  the  streets  of  St.  Louis  to  single  out  the  gen- 
tleman on  the  right  who  is  lighting  his  cigar,  and  the  portly 
individual  just  in  front  of  the  bar-keeper,  Avho  appears  to  bo 
wholly  engrossed  in  the  process  of  creating  a  glass  of  punch 


DRINKING    CUSTOMS.  481 

for  the  excellent  gentleman  with  the  elevated^ cigar,  who  has 
invited  him  to  join  in  "taking  a  little  something."  The  "in- 
vitor"  will  surely  be  recognized — there's  only  one  like  him  in 
St.  Louis.  Two  friends  are  seated  at  a  table  trvinw  their  «-i- 
gantic  intellects  at  "ten  cents  ante."  The  very  sugjrestive 
attitude  of  the  hiirh-toned  gentleman  who  sits  and  nazes  and 
has  not  been  invited  to  drink,  does  not  require  any  explana- 
tion. 

In  the  fine  wine  parlors  to  be  found  on  Fifth  Street,  and  on 
Market  and  Walnut  streets,  tables,  chairs  and  other  conve- 
niences are  to  be  found.  Some  of  the  beer  halls  on  Fifth  Street 
do  an  immense  business,  and  their  proprietors  expend  large 
sums  in  procuring  attractive  novelties  for  the  edi  Heat  ion  or 
amusement  of  their  patrons.  One  Fifth  Street  saloon  is  a  gal- 
lery of  the  caricaturist's  art.  Everybody  \yho  comes  to  St. 
Louis  visits  that  saloon,  whether  Murphyite  or  common  sin- 
ner. Some  of  the  great  beer  halls  are  almost  constantly 
thronged,  and  the  services  of  a  dozen  attendants  are  required 
to  serve  the  patrons.  The  sales  average  from  liftccii  to  twen- 
ty-five barrels  of  beer  per  day  in  three  or  four  of  the  h'ading 
houses  of  this  character  in  the  city  during  the  warm  season. 

In  the  summer  time,  Sunday  afternoons  and  evenings  in  the 
beer  gardens  would  give  a  stranger  an  excellent  imj)ression  of 
the  social  freedom  and  politeness  of  large  numbers  of  our  valu- 
able citizens.  Every  one  of  these  evenings  are  genuine  re[)ub- 
lican  re-unions — the  people  meet  on  a  level,  and  conversation  is 
general  and  free.  In  some  of  these  gardens  thousands  of  men, 
women  and  children,  may  be  seated  about  tables  sipping  beer, 
eating  pretzels,  smoking,  talking,  and  listening  at  the  l)und  iis 
it  discourses  grand  marches,  etc.  They  look  happy — they 
must  enjoy  life  in  this  way. 

We  can  only  say  further,  that  it  takes  no  small  (quantity  of 
whiskies,  brandies,  wines,  beers,  etc.,  to  supply  the  niarket  of 
St.  Louis,  and  yet  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Louis  are  compara- 
tively a  sober  people.  They  use  so  much  because  so  many  are 
to  be  supplied. 


31 


THE    BRIGHT    SIDE. 


THE  MANIFESTATIONS  OF  HUMANITY— CHARITIES 
OF  THE  CITY. 

We  have  presented  a  sombre  view  of  the  inner  life  of  the 
great  metropolis.  We  have  penetrated  into  the  darkest 
recesses  and  revealed  the  seething  cauldrons  of  misery,  of 
woe,  poverty,  vice  and  crime.  The  picture  is  bad  enough, 
though  all  too  leniently  drawn.  We  have  shown  that  in  the 
great  city,  sin,  fraud,  shame,  lewdness,  lying,  shams,  crimi- 
nals of  all  grades,  from  the  illiterate  vagabond  to  the  schol- 
arly forger  and  the  gentlemanly  cut-throat,  find  a  refuge  and 
make  opportunities  to  carry  out  their  devilish  designs  within 
the  limits  of  the  great  city.  What  then?  Are  all  bad?  Has 
the  canker  of  corruption  eaten  into  the  heart  of  humanity  and 
converted  the  whole  people  into  hypocrites  and  scoundrels, 
debauchees,  gamblers,  seducers  and  murderers?  All  of  these 
characters  are  to  be  found  in  the  sinful  hive,  but  not  all  the 
people  are  sinners.  But  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  the 
spirit  of  the  world  is  at  variance  with  the  requirements  of 
the  laws  of  love.  "Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  and 
*'  Do  unto  others  as  you  would  they  should  do  unto  you,"  are 
the  precepts  of  Him  before  whom  the  wisest  of  the  sons  of 
men  shrink  into  nothingness.  And  what  a  sublime  doctrine 
is  inculcated  in  these  few  words  !  A  doctrine  which,  if  carried 
out,  would  convert  this  earth  into  another  Eden. 

We  look  around  us,  and  there  is  not  an  object  on  which 
the  eye  can  rest  that  is  not  a  silent  witness  to  the  wisdom  and 
the  goodness  of  the  Creator.  The  sun  shines  down  upon  us 
to  light  the  day,  and  when  he  has  sunk  beneath  the  horizon, 

[483J 


CHARITABLE    AND    KEFOKMATORY.  483 

his  rays,  reflected  by  the  queen  of  night,  relieve  the  dsirkncss 
of  its  silent  gloom.  The  earth  teems  with  grain  to  satisfy 
the  wants  of  man  ;  with  fruit  that  is  pleasant  to  his  taste  ; 
with  flowers  of  varied  hue  and  delicate  foliage,  to  minister  to 
the  pleasures  of  the  eye.  Whether  we  contemplate  the  heav- 
enly hosts  above — where  worlds  multiplied  upon  worlds  pre- 
sent themselves,  until  they  are  lost  to  sight  in  the  unfathom- 
able depths  of  a  space  that  knows  no  bounds — or  circumscribe 
our  vision  to  the  most  insignificant  plant  that  grows  u})on  our 
earth,  or  the  meanest  worm  that  creeps  beneath  our  feet, 
everything  bespeaks  the  wisdom  and  beneficence  of  their 
"Great  Original,"  and  his  wish  for  the  happiness  of  mankind. 
Yet  selfishness,  which  wa'aps  the  heart  of  man,  as  in  a 
casing  of  "triple  brass,"  shuts  out  that  precept  inculcated 
in  the  words  and  life  of  the  divine  Teacher.  Revenge,  ambi- 
tion, the  heartless  calculations  of  worldly  wealth  and  power, 
drive  far  aw^ay  that  love  w^e  ow^e  our  neighbor,  and  which 
should  be  measured  in  degree  by  that  we  bear  ourselves. 
These,  and  other  evil  passions,  neutralize,  to  a  large  extent, 
the  kind  orderings  of  Providence  for  man's  hapjiiness. 
Goaded  on  by  self-love,  men  seek  their  own  selfish  ends, 
indifferent  to,  and  oftentimes  in  violation  of,  the  rights  of 
others.  Thus  the  man  of  traffic  sharpens  his  wits,  and,  with 
an  eye  eagerly  fixed  upon  gain,  congratulates  himself  upon 
his  shrewdness  and  superior  business  talents,  if  he  can  secure 
an  advantage  over  some  less  penetrating  neighbor.  Thus  the 
wily  diplomatist,  in  negotiations  with  his  opponent,  wrests 
language  from  its  original  design,  and  uses  it  as  a  cloak  to 
cover  up  and  keep  from  view,  instead  of  bringing  out  and 
making  clear,  the  real  object  for  which  he  is  contending. 
Hence  it  happens  that,  while  everything  in  nature  is,  with 
surpassing  wisdom,  adapted  to  administer  to  the  happiness  of 
man,  there  is  so  much  of  wretchedness  and  misery.  Striking 
its  fibres  deep  into  the  human  heart,  and  finding  there  a  soil 
Avhich  furnishes  most  ample  nourishment  for  its  growth,  self- 
love  shoots  out  its  branches,  until,  if  allowed  to  grow,  they 
overshadow  every  virtue,  and  like  the  Upas  tree,  exhale  a 
deadly  poison,  beneath  the  influence  of  which  no  kindly  charity 
can  live.     It  is  this  great  source  of  evil,  so  congenial  to  the 


484  TOUR   OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

natural  inclinations  of  fallen  man,  and  which  brings  so  many 
troubles  in  its  train,  that  Christianity  seeks  to  eradicate,  and 
in  its  stead  to  rear  the  lovely  plant  of  charity. 
Alas  !  that  men  should  forget  that 

'  'The  dearest  treasure  mortal  times  afford 
Is  spotless  reputation ;  that  away, 
Men  are  but  gilded  loam  and  painted  clay. 
A  jewel  in  a  ten  times  barred-up  chest, 
Is  a  bold  spirit  in  a  loyal  breast." 

But  such  is  the  tendency,  yet  not  the  ultimate  conclusion. 

If  we  have  the  darkness  of  night,  so  we  have  the  bright- 
ness of  day.  If  we  have  sinfulness  in  the  great  city,  so  we 
have  righteousness.  The  picture  is  not  all  so  dark — or  rather 
there  are  many  phases  of  life  in  St.  Louis,  and  we  have  shown 
the  worst.  It  is  with  joy  that  we  turn  from  the  contemplation 
of  the  misery  and  wretchedness,  the  vice  and  folly,  the  shame 
and  the  crimes  of  the  great  city,  to  the  humanitarian  phases 
of  our  urban  life.  In  the  midst  of  the  gloom  the  everlasting 
sun  breaks  forth  in  radiant  splendor.  While  boisterous  moral 
lepers  are  engaging  in  the  dance  of  deatli  in  a  thousand  haunts 
of  sin,  thousands  of  God-watching  spirits  are  soothing  the 
miseries  and  ministering  in  various  ways  to  the  physical  and 
moral  well-being  of  their  fellow-creatures. 

If  St.  Louis  has,  in  common  witli  other  cities,  the  elements 
of  evil  in  her  social  organism,  yet  she  can  justly  claim  to 
possess  more  abounding  elements  of  good.  There  are  too 
many  evidences  of  the  goodness  still  left  in  the  human  heart, 
notwithstanding  the  putrifying  glamourof  gold  which  corrupts 
and  destroys  all  the  better  impulses  of  man. 

St.  Louis  may  well  afford  to  be  proud  of  the  fact  that 
among  her  citizens  there  are  so  many  thousands  who  were  able 
to  realize  the  blessedness  of  giving.  If  we  have  street  Arabs, 
we  also  have  philanthropists  who  can  and  do  feel  and  care  for 
them.  The  world  was  not  made  in  a  day,  and  neither  can  the 
evils  of  society  be  cured  in  a  brief  space  of  time. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago  St.  Louis  had  street  Arabs — 
little  soiled-face  boys  and  unregarded  girls,  who  have  grown  up 
to  manhood  and  womanhood.  Some  of  these  are  fathers  and 
mothers  now.     The  dark  beginnings  have  given  place  to  a 


af 


ClIAKITABLK    AND    REFORMATORY, 


485 


hopeful  life  and  high  aspirations.  Some  of  the  Ara])s  of  the 
long-ago  have  become  respectable  citizens.  Some  of  the  boys 
have  become  lawyers,  and  doctors,  and  teachers,  and  a  few- 
have  become  priests  and  preachers.  To  achieve  these  posi- 
tions they  must  have  had  helping  hands  to  assist  them.  Did 
they?  Thirty  years  ago  and  more,  Mr.  Thomas  Morri- 
son, the  friend  of  all  the  poor  boys  and  girls  of  the  city,  saw 
and  sympathized  with  the  Arabs  of  that  time,  and  devised  ways 
and  means  to  assist  them — to  reach  their  moral  sensibilities, 


'■ 


THOMAS  MORRISON. 

to  inspire  them  with  hope,  to  lead  tliem  to  nobler  aspirations, 
to  lead  them  in  the  pathway  of  honor  and  virt  ue.     It  was  noble 

in  him. 

He  devised  a  plan,  for  he  is  a  man  of  many  resources  of 
mind.  He  sought  to  find  the  best  place  for  his  work,  and  he 
found  it.  P>i(l(lle  Market  is  confessedly  a  central  point  in  a 
district  where  there  is  much  poverty  and  much  vice — the  last 
hot  necessarily  a  result  of  the  first — and  commenced  his  work 
there  in  the  hall  of  the  market-house.     Sunday  was  a  day  on 


486  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

which  all  could  corae  who  would,  and  he  opened  a  Sunday- 
school.  Mr.  Morrison  is  an  earnest  man,  a  man  of  faith — a 
man  who  prays,  and  whatever  lessons  he  would  there  impart 
would  have  a  tendency  to  make  them  all  the  better  for  their 
attendance.  By  guile  he  induced  the  wild  hordes  of  the  streets 
to  come  in  ;  by  love  he  sought  to  win  and  to  redeem  them.  It 
was  a  noble  work.  Gradually  the  numbers  increased,  and 
soon  hundreds  and  hundreds  came,  until  the  attendance  at  each 
session  exceeded  half  a  score  of  hundreds.  They  came  from 
Avretched  homes,  where  all  was  dark,  hopeless,  despairing ; 
they  saw,  they  heard,  and  they  returned  to  the  places  whence 
they  came  with  light,  confidence,  and  hope.  Who  will  esti- 
mate the  value  of  the  instructions  which  they  received  ? 

And  so,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  while  the  mighty  multitudes 
of  men  and  women  surged  through  the  streets  and  disregarded 
the  laws  of  morality,  and  while  nations  came  into  birth,  and 
while  some  governments  struggled  for  existence  and  others 
perished  from  the  earth,  during  a  quarter  of  a  century  Thomas 
Morrison  has  not  foi-gotten  his  wayward,  neglected  boys  and 
girls,  and  Sunday  after  Sunday  he  still  goes  to  meet  and  to 
greet  them.  They  come  to  him  by  the  hundred.  Some  men 
love  the  chief  seats  in  the  synagogue,  and  the  glamour  of  gold 
blinds  them,  but  Thomas  Morrison  has  loved  the  poor  little 
children,  and  when  the  sitters  in  the  high  places  of  the  syna- 
gogues shall  have  been  forgotten,  the  name  of  one  will  still  be 
a  tradition  in  thousands  of  families,  for  "he  kept  the  Biddle 
Market  Mission  Sunday-school  for  the  poor."  Kings  and 
queens,  among  the  people,  will  doubtless  come  in  due  time 
from  those  who  have  attended  Morrison's  Biddle  Market  Sun- 
day-school. And  the  beneficiaries  of  the  Provident  Associa- 
tion, of  which  he  was  one  of  the  founders,  will  rise  up  in  some 
distimt  time  in  the  future  and  call  him  blessed — "I  was  hun- 
gry and  ye  gave  me  to  eat." 

The  Street  Boys'  Home  is  another  institution  which  the 
generous  and  the  noble  have  established,  to  alleviate  the  mis- 
eries created  by  the  sins  of  the  vicious  and  reckless.  One  of 
the  chief  patrons  of  this  place  is  James  E.  Yeatman,  a  gentle- 
man whose  interest  in  suffering  or  depraved  humanity  entitles 
him  to  the  kindly  remembrances  of  posterity." 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  487 

Even  the  "vagabonds,"  so-called,  are  not  neglected.  Mr. 
Penrose  Chapman,  having  the  confidence  and  support  of  Mr. 
C.  R.  Garrison  and  others,  has  established  a  "Friendl}'  Inn," 
where  bed  and  board  can  be  had  at  a  merely  nominal  fiirure,  and 
where  all  the  influences  around  the  place  arc  intended  to  ele- 
vate and  inspire  those  who  patronize  it  with  zeal  and  hope,  and 
aspirations  for  a  better  life.  Five  cents  can  not  certainly  bo 
called  an  extravagant  charge  for  a  good  wholesome  breakfast 
of  well  prepared  and  nourishing  food.  A  dime  is  not  an  ex- 
orbitant demand  for  a  mattress  and  its  accompaniments.  But 
then,  Penrose  Chapman  is  a  Christian  ;  and  C.  R.  Garrison,  a 
member  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  wealthy  families 
of  the  city,  is  also  a  Christian.  And  yet  we  are  told  that 
Christianity  accomplishes  no  good !  Hypocrisy  docs  not. 
The  devil  endeavors  to  imitate  the  inimitable  work  of  God's 
servants,  and  his  votaries  sit  in  cushioned  pews,  and  assist  in 
paying  for  magnificent  edifices  and  lofty  spires,  and  worship 
the  gods  created  by  the  tailors,  and  leave  men  to  starve,  as  if 
they  could  contribute  to  the  glory  of  Him  who  is  the  author 
and  owner  of  the  nniverse  ! 

Well,  the  poor  wayfiiring  women — the  victims  in  many  in- 
stances of  man's  duplicity,  and  the  highly  refined  instincts  of 
modern  civilization,  which  excuses  the  faults  of  the  rich  and 
damns  the  mistakes  or  ignorance  of  the  poor — have  not  escaped 
the  kindly  attentions  of  the  Christians — the  lovers  of  all  God's 
children.  So,  we  have  the  Guardian  Home,  an  institution 
designed  to  shelter,  feed,  and  lead  into  virtuous  ways  the  un- 
fortunate "  fjillen  ones,"  as  the  popular  phrase  describes  them. 
Of  course  society  only  condemns  one-half  of  the  guilty  ones 
in  these  cases  of  "alapse  from  morality."  But  then,  what  is 
society?  We  have  not  space  or  inclination  to  discuss  the 
question.  The  Guardian  Home,  situated  on  Twelfth  Street, 
offers  a  friendly  shelter  to  all  who  apply,  and  the  design  is  to 
make  them  better,  to  save  them  from  sinning  with  greater — it 
may  be — richer  sinners.  Poor  Avomen  !  They  need  kindly 
otSces  ;  and  the  good  and  the  true,  who  have  means,  have  es- 
tablished that  place  in  order  that  they  may  receive  that  kind- 
ness and  sympathy  which  their  forlorn  condition  so  much  re- 
quires. 


488  .  TOUK    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

On  Fourteeuth  Street,  between  Cass  Avenue  and  O' Fallon 
Street,  is  another  noble  institution,  under  the  especial  "  watch- 
care  "  of  James  E.  Yeatinan.  This  is  the  "  Working  Women's 
Home."  At  this  institution  Mrs.  M.  A,  Evans  has  long  pre- 
sided. The  object  for  which  this  "  Home"  is  maintained,  is 
to  afford  a  place  of  refuge  for  worthy  women,  strangers  or  not, 
who  find  themselves  without  means  or  employment  in  the  city, 
until  such  time  as  they  can  find  work  by  which  they  can  earn 
an  honest  livelihood.  A  home  for  blind  girls  has  also  recently 
been  established  in  connection  with  the  "  Home." 

"The  Worthy  Women's  Aid  and  Hospital  "  has  been  es- 
tablished for  some  years  on  Howard  Street,  between  Tenth  and 
Eleventh  streets,  and  is  managed  by  Mrs.  Hariot.  This  insti- 
tution is  accomplishing  a  great  work.  Every  day  some  poor 
unfortunate  comes  to  seek  rest,  and  none  are  ever  turned 
away.  Employment  is  sought  for  all  who  can  work,  and 
shelter  is  refused  to  none.  Mrs.  Hariot  conducts  this  estab- 
lishment without  the  aid  of  any  organized  association  of  phi- 
lanthropists. It  is  seldom  that  a  fewer  number  than  twenty 
inmates  are  to  be  found  in  this  institution. 

Then  we  have  the  "Home  of  the  Friendless,"  a  well- 
endowed  charity,  w^here  aged  ladies,  persons  who  have  no 
relatives  or  friends  convenient,  and  must  otherwise  become  a 
charge  on  the  public,  are  received  and  cared  for  until  the 
closing  scene,  when  they  are  relieved  from  anxiety  and  care. 
What  a  company  of  venerable  and  stately  old  ladies  are  here 
to  be  met !  They  have  all  seen  better  days  ;  and  am9ng  the 
seventy-five  old  ladies  always  to  be  seen  about  the  home,  the 
visitor  will  not  fail  to  meet  some  persons  who  were  once 
queens  of  society  away  back  in  the  past ;  some  decaj'ed  and 
wrinkled  survivor  of  many  a  splendid  social  re-union,  where 
the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  nation  participated.  Ah  !  we 
remember  one,  whose  history  shall  not  now  be  written,  who  was 
once  a  great  belle,  and  reigned  a  queen  in  the  highest  ranks 
of  society  in  the  national  capital.  How  beautiful  she  must 
have  been  then  !  It  was  so  long  ago,  when  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  Andrew  Jackson  reigned  as  social  kings  at  Wash- 
ington.  Her  name  appears  in  the  old-time  journals  as  a  leader 
of  society  ;   and  in  a  little  scrap-book  she  has  preserv^ed   the 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  480 

many,  raany  memoranda  of  her  triumphs,  recorded  by  the 
Jenkmses  of  those  days.  It  is  an  interesting  little  volnme, 
and  treasnred  by  its  owner  as  above  the  price  of  rubies.  What 
has  become  of  all  those  "  lovely  ladies,"  the  beautiful  Miss 
So  and  So  and  the  charming  Misses  Blank,  who  iigured  so 
prominently  in  the  balls,  and  soirees,  and  7?iusicales  in  those 
long,  past  days?  "Where  are  they  now?  Whore?  Well, 
some,  like  the  charming  reminiscence  of  lost  bellcliood  down 
at  the  "  Home  of  the  Friendless,"  may  exclaim — 

"  My  life  has  crept  so  long  on  a  broken  wing 

Throu<fh  scenes  of  sadness,  haunts  of  horror  and  fear, 
That  I  come  to  be  grateful  at  last  for  a  little  thing." 

And  some  have  mouldered  away  ;  and  some,  a  few  it  may  be, 
are  beloved  grandmas  of  belles,  wealtliy  and  more  beautiful 
than  the  queens  of  a  season  in  Jackson's  day.  So  the  "  Old 
Ladies'  Home,"  as  it  is  generally  known,  receives  these  fallen 
and  exiled  queens,  and  in  the  quiet  place  which  charity  has 
provided,  they  are  only  waiting  for  the  boatmen  to  carry  them 
over  to  the  other  shore.  One  thins;,  one  sole  memory  of  the 
past  which  time  can  not  efface,  and  only  death  can  wi})c  out,  is 
left  to  these  ancient  belles,  it  is  the  love  of  gossip.  Dear  old 
souls  !  Shut  out  from  the  world  as  they  are,  they  yet  find 
time  to  gossip,  and  sit  for  hours  commenting  on  the  peculiari- 
ties of  some  one  of  their  mates  in  the  Home. 

Up  on  Nineteenth  Street,  between  Christy  Avenue  and 
Moro-an  Street,  substantial  buildings  have  been  erected,  and 
accommodations  provided,  for  a  hundred  and  seventy-tive 
orphan  girls.  It  is  the  "  Girls'  Industrial  Home."  What  a 
beneficent  institution  !  Poor,  unfortunate  waifs  of  the  street 
are  taken  and  placed  in  that  house,  which  becomes  their  home, 
and  they  are  educated,  and  trained  up  to  habits  of  industry. 
Mrs.  C.  T.  Baker,  the  matron,  is  the  mother  of  the  family,  and 
rules  well  her  household.  A  teacher  is  constantly  employed  ; 
and  young  girls  of  fifteen,  when  they  leave  the  Home,  are  very 
well  educated,  having  had  eciually  as,  good  opportunities  as 
those  who  have  attended  the  pu])lic  schools  for  an  ecpial  period 
of  time.  It  is  an  institution  Avhieh  well  deserves  the  com- 
mendation and  support  of  every  class  of  the  comnmnity.  It 
is  entirely  on  a  charity  foundation. 


490 


TOUR    OF    8T.    LOUIS. 


So  long  ago  as  1858,  the  good  pastor,  Louis  E.  Nollau,  of 
St.  Peters'  German  Evangelical  Church,  was  forcibly  im- 
pressed with  the  necessity  for  some  home  where  destitute, 
friendless  orphans  might  be  saved  from  vicious  contamination 
and  reared  to  habits  of  industry  and  economy,  thereby  becom- 
ing useful  citizens.  The  beginning  of  pastor  Nollau's  benevo- 
lent enterprise  was  small.  A  couple  of  rooms  in  an  old 
residence  in  a  crowded  street,  was  the  best  that  could  be 
done.  To  this  place  he  was  accustomed  to  convey  the  poor 
waifs  left  by  persons  from  the  dear  fatherland,  and  consign 
them  to  the  care  of  an  old  lady  who  had  agreed  to  take  charge 
of  them.  The  little  home  was  soon  filled.  The  good  preacher 
became  a  beggar  for  the   destitute  children.     In  time  there 


THE  NEW  GERMAN  PROTESTANT  ORPHAN  HOME. 

was  no  more  room,  and  a  six-room  house,  not  far  from  Carr 
Park,  was  secured,  and  became  the  abiding  place  of  the  boys 
and  girls  who  had  no  other  habitation.  That,  too,  quickly  be- 
came too  small,  and  then  a  number  of  persons  of  means  took  up 
the  burden,  and  an  association  was  formed,  and  the  old 
LaBeaume  Homestead,  nine  miles  from  the  city,  was  purchased 
and  became  the  German  Protestant  Orphans'  Home.  It  was 
subsequently  added  to,  and  in  time  an  elegant  structure  had 
been  erected  about  it,  when  one  night  an  alarm  of  fire  was 
given.  The  orphans  were  all  rescued  save  one,  but  the  build- 
ings were  entirely  consumed.  It  was  a  great  disaster ;  but 
the  spectacle  of  more  than  three  hundred  homeless  orphans 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  491 

excited  the  benevolent  feeling  of  many  hciirts,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  the  foundation  of  the  elegant  structure  represented 
was  laid,  and  the  building  was  speedily  ready  for  the  lar<ro 
family  of  boys  and  girls  which  had  been  gathered  for  Mr.  Mid 
Mrs.  Hackemeier ;  and  this  has  since  been  their  home. 

This  is  one  of  the  best  conducted  orphanages  in  or  near 
St.  Louis.  There  more  than  three  hundred  children  of  both 
sexes  are  constantly  maintained.  They  have  large  gromids, 
and  quite  a  farm,  where  they  are  taught  the  trade  of  farming, 
and  the  girls  are  brought  up  to  the  proper  conceptions  of 
domestic  duty.  This  institution  is  on  the  St.  Charles  Eock 
Road,  nine  miles  from  the  court-house. 

The  Methodists  have  established  a  most  useful  and  well 
conducted  orphanage  on  Lindell  Avenue.  Here  a  large  num- 
ber of  orphans,  usually  averaging  more  than  a  hundred  in 
number,  are  provided  for.  This  institution,  like  the  preced- 
ing one,  is  maintained  altogether  by  the  offerings  of  the 
charitable. 

The  Episcopal  Orphans'  Home  has  been  established  at 
Webster  Groves,  near  the  present  city  limits.  It  is  another 
home  where  humane  sympathies  have  thrown  around  the 
helpless  the  shield  of  protection. 

The  Lutherans  also  have  a  home  for  their  orphans,  main- 
tained by  charity,  situated  on  Sidney  Street. 

The  German  Orphans'  Home  is  a  new  institution,  founded 
by  an  association  of  German  gentlemen,  not  particularly 
attached  to  any  church  organization.  It  is  accomplishing 
much  good. 

St.  Luke's  Hospital  is  maintained  by  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal churches  of  this  diocese.  It  is  one  of  our  noblest 
charities — one  that  could  not  be  dispensed  with,  inasmuch  as 
its  doors  are  opened  to  all. 

There  are  other  institutions  maintained  by  Protestants 
and  others,  which  are  doing  great  things  for  the  unfortunate 
and  the  lowly. 

The  Good  Samaritan  Hospital,  maintained  by  the  German 
Evangelical  denomination,  situated  at  the  head  of  O'Fallon 
Street,  on  Jefferson  Avenue,  well  deserves  to  be  mentioned 
in  this  connection.     It  is  a  charity,  the  foundation  of  which 


492  •  TOUK    OP'    ST.    LOUIS. 

was  laid  by  the  good  pastor,  Nollau,  already  mentioned.  The 
building  is  capable  of  accommodating  more  than  a  hundred 
patients  at  this  time,  and  is  not  often  left  unoccupied  by 
the  sick. 

It  was  Roman  Catholics  in  faith  who  first  planted  the 
standard  of  civilization  in  the  wilderness  on  the  site  now  occu- 
pied by  this  great  city  ;  it  was  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  who 
first  held  formal  service  to  Almighty  God,  with  the  name  of 
Christ  as  a  mediator,  in  this  region.  But  the  musical  Gallic 
accent  in  which  those  divine  offerings  were  made  is  now  sel- 
dom heard.  Still,  Roman  Catholics  have  always  maintained 
a  predominance  in  the  city,  with  all  its  teeming  thousands. 
To-day  the  massive  structures  reared  for  the  benefit  of  the 
destitute  and  the  suflfering  poor  attest  the  greatness  and  liber- 
ality of  this  important  element  in  our  population. 

Among  the  oldest  of  the  charitable  institutions  established 
And  maintained  by  the  Roman  Catholics  of  this  city  is  the  St. 
Louis  Hospital,  now  situated  on  Montgomery  Street,  near 
Grand  Avenue.  It  was  originally  built  on  a  square  of  ground 
on  the  east  side  of  Fourth  Street,  and  south  of  Spruce  Street, 
which  was  donated  by  the  late  Judge  Miillanphy.  "  The  Sis- 
ters' Hospital,"  by  which  name  it  is  best  known,  is  under  the 
direction  of  those  noble,  self-sacrificing  ladies,  the  Sisters  of 
Charity  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  vast  amount  of  good 
which  has  been  accomplished  by  these  ladies  at  their  hospital 
during  the  past  fifty  years.  It  was  for  a  long  time  the  only 
hospital  for  the  care  of  the  sick  in  the  city.  The  building  at 
present  occupied  by  them  is  spacious  and  well  ventilated,  in  a 
beautiful  portion  of  the  city,  and  here  every  attention  possible 
is  paid  to  the  sick. 

St.  Ann's  Asylum,  situated  on  the  corner  of  Tenth  and 
O'Fallon  streets,  also  under  the  direction  of  the  Sisters  of 
Charity,  was  erected  many  years  ago,  principally  from  an  en- 
dowment given  by  the  late  Mrs.  Ann  Biddle.  It  has  a  three- 
fold character — an  infant  asylum  ;  second,  a  maternity  hos- 
pital, and  third,  a  home  for  aged  and  decrepit  women.  The 
amount  of  service  rendered  to  unfortunate,  helpless,  and 
friendless  humanity  in  this  institution  can  not  be  estimated. 

Across,  on  Tenth  and  Biddle  streets,  adjoining  the  grounds 


CHARITAHLE    AND    KEFOK.MATOKY. 


493 


on  which  St.  Ann's  is  situated,  is  the  extensive  Ori)haniiire  of 
St.  Mary's,  under  the  direction  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  where 
there  is  an  average  of  more  than  three  hundred  girls  to  be  found 
at  all  times,  most  of  whom  never  knew  any  other  home.  Tliis 
is  one  of  three  institutions  maintained  by  the  English-speaking 
Roman  Catholic  parishes  of  the  city.     It  is  altogether  main- 


tained by  such  benefactions  as  the  charitable  give  to  the  cause 
of  helpless  humanity. 

St.  Vincent's  Orphanage,  situated  on  Twentieth,  near  Cass 
Avenue,  is  another  monument  to  the  benevolent  of  heart.  It 
is  under  the  direction  of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph's,  most,  if 
not  all,  of  whom  are  Germans.     In  this  place  not  loss  than 


494  TOUK    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

one  hundred  and  eighty  to  two  hundred  orphan  boys  are  con- 
stantly maintained  and  brought  up  to  industrious  tastes  and 
pursuits. 

St.  Bridget's  Orphan  Home  for  Girls,  under  tlie  care  of  the 
Sisters  of  Charity,  is  situated  on  Christy  Avenue  and  Beau- 
mont Street,  and  is  one  of  the  three  institutions  maintained  by 
the  English-speaking  Catholic  parishes, 

St.  Joseph's  Orphan  Home  for  Boys  is  situated  on  Fifteenth 
and  Clark  Avenue,  and  in  it  more  than  three  hundred  boys 
find  a  home  and  are  taught  useful  trades. 

St.  Philomena's  Home  for  Girls  is  situated  on  Clark  and 
Summit  avenues,  and  receives  the  larger  girls  who  have  been 
brought  up  in  St.  Mary's  and  St.  Bridget's.  It  is  under  the 
direction  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  and  is  wholly  maintained 
by  charity. 

The  House  of  the  Guardian  Angel  is  situated  on  South 
Eleventh  Street  and  Soulard.  It  is  under  the  management  of 
the  Sisters  of  Charity,  and  is  intended  as  a  protectory  for 
young  girls  liable  to  be  exposed  to  temptation.  There  are 
upwards  of  a  hundred  inmates  in  this  place.  It  is  principally 
maintained  by  gifts  from  the  benevolent. 

St.  John's  Hospital,  Twenty-third  and  Morgan  streets,  is 
maintained  through  the  exertions  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  of 
St.  Joseph's  Convent,  which  adjoins  it.  Here  patients,  both 
male  and  female,  are  received  and  treated  for  all  the  diseases 
to  which  flesh  is  heir,  save  those  of  an  eruptive  and  contagious 
character.  In  connection  with  the  convent  is  a  female  night 
refuge  and  lodging  house,  maintained  by  the  same  self-sacrific- 
ing Sisters  of  Mercy. 

The  Alexian  Brothers'  Monastery  and  Hospital  is  situated 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  city,  on  Carondelet  road.  There 
are  twelve  brethren,  and  they  have  spacious  quarters,  with  beds 
for  fifty  patients.  On?  of  the  rules  of  this  order  is  that  they 
shall  go  out  and  attend  the  sick  whenever  and  wherever  they 
may  be  called,  and  that  they  shall  make  no  charge  for  such 
services. 

The  Sisters  of  St.  Mary,  as  they  are  commonly  called,  have 
three  establishments  in  the  city  ;  one  on  Mulberry  and  Fourth 
streets,  near   /Saint  Marten  Kirche^    have  a  noble  band   of 


CHARITABLE    AND    KKFORMATOUY.  49i> 

nuns,  who  have  been  trained  as  nurses,  and  who  go  out  wher- 
ever they  may  be  summoned,  and  attend  ami  wait  upon  the 
sick  and  receive  only  such  compensation  as  nuiy  bo  offered. 
These  sisters  also  have  a  lying-in  lu)si)it:il  on  Papin  Street, 
and  a  novitiate  and  school  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the 
city. 

In  the  northwestern  part  of  the  city,  just  to  the  north  of 
St.  Louis  Park,  there  is  a  commodious  building  Avhich  niav 
be  iitly  termed  the  abode  of  the  Hopeless — at  least,  hopeless 
concerning  the  future  in  the  life  that  now  is.  Of  all  the 
charities  of  the  city  there  are  none  which  show  the  brighter 
side  of  human  nature  more  fitly  than  the  Home  established 
by  the  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor.  AVhat  a  great  burden  these 
devoted  ladies,  from  the  vine-clad  hills  of  France,  have  under- 
taken to  carry.  Here  there  are  about  two  hundred  aged  men 
and  women,  in  most  instances  without  means,  and,  of  course, 
without  sympathizing  friends,  who  find  at  last  a  refuge — a  place 
to  suffer  on  until  the  Angel  of  Release  shall  come  and  let  them 
free.  They  are  here  well  housed,  well  clad,  and  kindl}^  cared 
for.  Some  of  them  are  very  aged,  several  have  exceeded  over 
a  hundred  years  of  time.  Some  are  all  twisted  and  distorted 
by  the  racking  torments  of  disease.  But  they  are  wonderfully 
])atient,  and  many  of  them  sit  calmly  on  the  brink  of  the 
river  which  separates  time  from  eternity,  waiting  to  be  wafted 
across  to  the  unknown  shore.  Bless  the  gentle  Little  Sisters, 
who  smooth  the  path  before  them. 

One  more  great  temple,  which  Catholic  charity  has  conse- 
crated to  the  cause  of  humanity  and  to  the  behests  of  purity, 
remains  to  be  noticed — the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  An 
institution  such  as  this  one  is  deserves  more  than  a  passing 
notice.  Here  some  sixt}^  or  more  ladies,  who  are  educated 
and  refined,  are,  all  the  days  of  their  lives,  shut  out  from  the 
world,  and  all  in  order  to  devote  themselves  to  the  work  of 
redeeming  the  lost,  and  serving  the  poor,  unfortunate,  outcast 
sinners.  There  are  three  classes  of  persons  confined  within 
the  massive  walls  of  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd :  1st. 
The  girls  exposed  to  vicious  infiuences,  Avho  have  been  placed 
in  the  House  to  preserve  them  from  falling.  2d.  Young  girls 
who  have  already  fallen,  and  who  have  been  placed  there  by 


496  .  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

their  parents  or  friends  for  reformation  ;  and  3d.  A  class  of 
girls  who  have  voluntarilj  sought  seclusion  from  the  world, 
and  especially  the  abandoned  creatures  with  whom  they  had 
been  associated.  Some  of  these  are  of  the  lowest  cast  of  the 
great  tribe  of  abandoned  women,  whom  a  rekindled  spark  of 
conscience  has  sent  to  the  penitent's  cell.  Altogether  there 
are  upwards  of  four  hundred  females,  who  have  led  a  depraved 
life,  confined  in  the  Good  Shepherd's.  The  Order  of  Magda- 
lens,  whp  have  abandoned  the  world  and  taken  perpetual 
vows,  includes  in  the  ranks  many  who  have  come  from  the 
very  lowest  depths  of  shameless  debauchery. 

Sister  Frances  Patrick,  Avho  appears  to  have  active  super- 
vision of  the  place,  is  a  lady  of  very  superior  mind,  which 
has  been  improved  by  culture,  and  deepened  by  experience. 
She,  and  the  noble  sisterhood  connected  with  this  community 
of  nuns,  are  entitled  to,  and  should  receive,  the  profound  re- 
gard of  all  who  love  morality  and  purity. 

There  are  several  other  institutions  maintained  by  church 
societies  and  private  associations  which  merit  at  least  some 
slight  mention,  but  our  pages  are  already  full.  It  is  evident 
that  dark  as  are  the  social  shadows,  they  have  a  comple- 
mentary bright  side.  Selfishness  and  viciousness  are  all  too 
prevalent,  and  yet  there  is  left  to  the  world  much  of  the 
warm,  living  sympathies  which  render  life  pleasant  because 
they  exist. 

St.  Louis,  as  a  municipality,  maintains  several  institutions 
of  no  small  importance,  and  at  no  little  expense.  Among 
these  is  the  City  Hospital,  under  the  control  of  the  Board  of 
Health,  and  directly  under  the  superintendence  of  Dr.  D.  V. 
Dean.  This  is  an  immense  building  with  many  wards  and 
apartments.  The  number  of  patients  varies  from  one  hundred 
and  fifty  to  three  hundred.  These  are  sent  to  the  hospital 
through  the  dispensary  physician,  or  by  the  Commissioner  of 
Health.  Diseases  of  all  characters  are  encountered  in  this  vast 
lazar-house.  Dr.  Dean  is  favored  by  having  a  staff  of  young 
graduates,  who  draw  no  salary,  but  are  furnished  with  board 
and  lodging  in  the  hospital.  The  superintendent,  or,  as  we 
should  say,  physician  to  the  city  hospital,  maintains  excellent 
discipline  and  enforces  the  strictest  rules  in  relation  to  the 


I 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  497 

sanitary  condition  of  this  great  establishment.  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  descril)e  the  buildini;,  or  give  any  account  of  its  divis- 
ions. It  is  simihir  in  all  respects,  to  the  great  hospitals  of 
other  cities.  Strangers  desirous  of  visiting  it  may  do  so  very 
readily  by  street  car. 

The  Female  Hospital,  which  is  a  separate  institution  to 
that  above  noticed,  occupies  a  handsome  site  in  the  southwest 
part  of  the  city,  and  is  maintained  at  the  public  expense  as  a 
lying-in  house  or  Maternity  Hospital  ;  and  also  for  the  recep- 
tion and  treatment  of  female  patients  of  the  city  generally. 
Into  neither  of  the  institutions  named,  are  persons  admitted 
who  have  sufficient  means  or  who  have  friends  to  care  for 
them.     Dr.  Schenck  has  charge  of  this  institution. 

The  United  States  Government  maintains  a  hospital  for 
the  marines,  the  sailors  and  steamboatmen,  at  St.  Louis.  The 
Marine  Hospital  is  finely  situated  on  a  bluff  overlooking  the 
river,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  city.  Dr.  "VVyman  is  surgeon 
in  charge. 

The  city  maintains  a  farm  and  hospital  for  the  benefit  of 
the  paupers  who  may  become  a  public  charge.  At  this  place 
nearly  five  hundred  poor  miserable  wi-etches  are  collected. 
Nearly  two  hundred  of  the  number  are  idiotic.  Some  of  these 
have  been  brought  in  from  the  countrv  on  railway  trains  and 
abandoned  on  the  streets  to  become  a  public  charge  on  the 
city  by  those  who  brought  them  here. 

The  State  of  Missouri  has  adopted  and  supports  the  Insti- 
tution for  the  Education  of  the  Blind,  situated  in  this  city. 
The  many  improvements  in  the  methods  of  instruction,  intro- 
duced in  the  past  few  years,  have  led  to  the  happiest  results. 
The  pupils  in  this  school  have  made  remarkable  progress,  such 
as  to  create  surprise  in  those  who  were  favored  l>y  witnessing 
their  proficiency.  Dr.  Mc Workman  is  the  Superintendent, 
and  he  has  an  able  statf  of  teachers  to  carry  on  the  educa- 
tional work.  The  teachers  who  have  achieved  such  results  are 
John  T.  Sibley,  A,  M.,  Principal,  and  Misses  Colby,  Hill,  Mar- 
tin and  McGinness,  Assistants. 


,/«^:,,rimi^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 


"'"«£'■"  ""^ifiiia" »™'.ii?i|jr::iii!i:ffir''''Vg:»|.|,^ 


THE    INSANE. 


THE  ASYLUMS  FOR  THEIR  TREATMENT  IN 
ST.  LOUIS. 

The  Insane!  We  often  hear  the  word  lightly  and  carelessly 
spoken.  Men  scarcely  give  a  thought  to  the  dreadful  meaning 
of  those  two  syllables.  If  we  speak  of  death,  we  do  it  with 
bated  breath  ;  if  we  speak  of  the  grave,  our  hearts  grow  sad, 
for  we  associate  the  word  with  the  processes  of  decay  in  the 
solemn  darkness  of  that  under-carth  tenement,  in  which  we 
have  seen  placed  the  beautiful  forms  of  the  loved  and  lost, 
and  we  realize  that  those  forms  are  mouldering  into  indistin- 
guishable dust.  But  we  speak  of  the  insane  as  we  speak  of  a 
class,  the  bond,  the  free,  the  high,  the  low,  the  rich,  the  poor. 
We  do  not  readily  grasp  the  significance  of  a  word  which 
names  the  awful  malady  which  debars  the  victim  from  the  con- 
sideration of  rational  questions,  the  enjoyments  of  social  life, 
and  the  contemplation  of  the  face  of  Nature.  The  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,  the  deep  vault  of  the  blue  sky,  the  smiling  fields, 
the  ripening  crops,  and  the  fairest  pictures  of  earth,  can  no 
more  gladden  the  eyes  of  the  hopeless  and  incurable  insane. 

What  a  terrible  meaning  has  the  little  word  Insane  !  What 
do  we  mean  by  it?  We  mean  a  measure  of  distress  wiiich  jio 
bodily  ill  can  produce  ;  we  mean  a  painful  struggle  between 
the  convictions  of  reason  and  the  suggestions  of  disease, 
while  the  mind  is  tormented  by  the  dread  of  approacliing 
calamity ;  we  mean  the  absorption  of  the  whole  soul  in  one 
single  horrible  idea,  none  the  less  so  because  it  is  false  as 
regarded  by  others  ;  we  mean  that  depression  of  spirit  in  which 
the  wJiole  universe,  mental  and  moral  and  material,  seems  to 
be  enveloped  in  a  funeral  pall,  or,  in  the  conception  of  the  poet 
of  all    times,   Shakespeare,   when  man  dclighteth  not,    nor 

[499] 


500  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

woman  neither,  and  this  goodly  frame,  the  earth,  seems  a 
sterile  promontory;  this  most  excellent  canopy,  the  air, 
this  brave,  overhanging  firmament,  this  majestical  roof  fretted 
with  golden  fire,  appears  no  other  than  a  foul  and  pestilent 
congregation  of  vapors.  We  mean  a  state  of  jealousy  and 
suspicion,  in  which  every  creature,  even  the  nearest  and 
dearest,  seems  to  be  an  enemy  ready  for  any  conceivable  mis- 
chief or  annoyance  ;  we  mean  a  paroxysm  of  fury  or  an  over- 
powering delusion  which  must  end  at  last  in  bloodshed  and 
carnage,  the  dearest  and  most  cherished  beings  the  victims  ; 
we  mean  a  complete  change  of  character  and  habits,  a  course 
of  idleness  and  neglect  of  duty,  instead  of  industry  and  a 
scrupulous  discharge  of  all  the  obligations  of  life  ;  we  mean 
indifference  and  hostility  toward  the  objects  of  the  tenderest 
affection  ;  we  mean  hurry  and  restlessness  without  measure  or 
motive,  instead  of  a  habitually  calm  and  judicious  movement ; 
we  mean  extravagant  expenditure,  and  a  reckless,  lawless 
habit  of  living,  in  place  of  rigid  exactness  and  an  exemplary 
demeanor ;  we  mean  a  perpetual  sense  of  anxiety  and  appre- 
hension for  months  and  years  together,  pervading  a  family 
circle,  once  the  abode  of  peace,  love  and  mutual  confidence  ; 
and  extreme  destitution,  where  once  were  prosperity  and 
plenty  ;  we  mean  the  excited  ravings  of  the  maniac,  the  gross 
delusions  of  the  monomaniac,  the  mischief  and  malice  of  the 
morally  insensible,  the  gloom  and  despair  of  the  melancholic, 
and  the  dual  life  of  the  subject  of  circular  insanity.  These 
are  some  of  the  meanings  which  attach  to  the  little  word 
insane. 

St.  Louis  is  not  only  populous,  but  it  is  a  central  point 
towards  which  all  sorts  of  people  gravitate,  in  continued  pro- 
cession. The  sinful  come  to  find  associates  in  sin,  and  to  hide 
away  among  sinners.  Vagrants  come  to  find  society  among 
vagabonds.  Thieves,  not  only  come  to  consort  w^ith  other 
thieves,  but  in  order  to  plunder.  Murderers  flee  to  the  great 
cities  in  order  to  conceal  themselves  from  the  pursuit  of 
avengers.  Pickpockets  and  loafers,  and  tramps,  and  sinners, 
and  criminals,  of  every  grade  and  character,  are  ever  moving 
toward  the  populous  hives,  the  great  cities.  Then  imbeciles, 
and   cripples,  and   the  poverty-stricken   of  every   class,    are 


CHARITABLE    AND    KEFOUMATOKY.  5()1 

brought  into  the  city  by  ones  and  twos  hy  the  railroads.  Tlie 
traveling  expenses  of  these  poor  unfortunates  art-  paitl  by 
counties  and  municipalities  to  save  the  cost  of  their  main- 
tenance, by  imposing  them  on  the  great  city  as  a  charg(\ 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  human  nature  developed  among  the 
rural  functionaries  who  send  their  paupers  and  insane  imhc- 
ciles  to  lose  them  in  the  streets  of  St.  Louis.  They  do  hy 
others  as  they  would  not  have  others  do  unto  them — a  favorite 
version  of  an  ancient  law  now  in  general  use.  Hence,  St. 
Louis  receives,  and  is  consequently  credited  Avitli  having,  a 
heav}'^  percentage  of  insane  in  proportion  to  population. 

St.  Louis  has  provided  amply  and  elegantly  for  the  accom- 
modation and  care  of  this  unfortunate  class  of  her  population, 
a  large  proportion  of  whom  have  been  foisted  as  a  charge 
upon  the  resources  of  the  city  by  dishonorable  country  officials, 
who  have  sent  them  here  to  be  "dropped  on  the  street,"  and 
subsequently  picked  up  by  the  metropolitan  police  officers, 
and  consigned  to  the  City  Insane  Asylum. 

The  city  is  well  provided  with  institutions  for  the  custody 
and  care  of  patients  of  this  unfortunate  class.  The  City 
Insane  Asylum  and  St.  Vincent's  Asylum,  are  l)oth  immense 
structures,  with  ample  accommodations  for  several  hundred 
patients  each. 

St.  Vincent's  is  under  the  control  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Sisters  of  Charity,  and  is  generally  conceded  to  be  one  of  the 
best  conducted  institutions  for  the  protection  and  medical 
treatment  of  the  insane  in  the  West.  The  City  Insane  Asylum 
is  under  the  management  of  the  Board  of  Health  of  the  city 
of  St.  Louis.  The  Health  Commissioner  has  the  chief  oversight 
of  this  great  public  charity.  At  the  Asylum,  Dr.  N.  I)e\^M-e 
Howard  is  Superintendent,  and  exercises  direct  control  over 
the  patients  and  attendants,  and  is  responsible  for  the  actual 
government  of  all  the  affairs  of  the  institution. 

Reader,  were  you  ever  in  a  mad-house?  Then,  if  you 
were  not  and  would  spare  your  feelings  from  harrowing  sights 
and  heartrending  sounds,  it  is  best  you  should  not  cross  the 
threshhold  of  such  an  institution.  What  strange  fancies  cloud 
the  reason  of  all  the  hundreds  of  persons  whom  you  would 
meet  in  that  huge  Imilding,  with  its  long  halls  and  ranges  of 


502  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

grated  and  barred  cells  !  What  magnificent  wrecks  of  brilliant 
intellects  you  would  meet  as  you  walked  through  the  corri- 
dors !  What  rasping  howls,  horrible  screeches,  and  plaintive 
wails  would  assail  your  ears  I  What  sad  faces  and  mournful 
eyes  would  meet  your  vision  and  forever  thereafter  haunt  your 
dreams  !  Once  beholding  these  sad  spectres  of  lost  minds, 
the  visitor   is  prepared  to  join  with  fervor  in  the  prayer  of 

Lear — 

"Oh,  let  me  not  be  mad,  not  mad,  sweet  Heaven  ! 
Keep  me  in  temper;  I  would  not  be  mad!" 

How  many  among  the  hundreds  of  male  inmates  are  there  who 
once  had  dreams  of  fame,  who  once  were  the  pets  of  society, 
the  hopes  of  parents  and  the  pride  of  the  homes  from  whence 
they  have  gone  out  forever  ! 

Let  us  enter  that  palatial  structure. 

There  is  Dr.  Howard  and  his  assistant,  Dr.  George  W. 
Hoover.     We  desire  to  pass  through  the  institution. 

Yes,  we  can  go  through  it.  Dr.  Hoover  will  attend  to  otir 
desires.  An  attendant  is  called.  Dr.  Hoover,  with  two  years' 
experience,  has  become  quite  familiar  with  the  various  fancies 
which  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  the  patients.  The  Doctor 
in  person  will  accompany  us  on  our  visit.  He  has  a  certain 
routine  employed  day  after  day,  and  it  comes  natural  to  him 
to  show  off  his  interesting  patients.  His  relation  of  facts  in 
connection  with  the  institution  are  invariable.  These  same 
incidents  and  descriptions,  and  comments  and  observations 
have  been  gone  over  with,  perhaps,  a  thousand  times,  to  as 
many  different  visitors. 

We  may  expect  to  be  told  about  the  character  of  the  iron 
stairways,  leading  from  story  to  story  of  the  building ;  their 
convenience,  not  only  as  thoroughfares,  but  as  a  means  of 
escape  in  case  a  fire  should  break  out  in  the  building.  Then 
we  shall  hear  of  the  scrupulous  cleanliness,  the  polished  floors, 
the  excellent  tal)le  furniture,  the  well-washed  linen,  the  admi- 
rable ventilation,  the  watchfulness  of  the  attendants,  and  the 
peculiarities  of  some  of  the  patients.  The  Doctor  has  conned 
his  lesson  over  and  over.  It  is  easy  for  him  to  impart  his 
knowledge  of  matters  at  the  Asylum.    He  has  done  so  hundreds 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  5(),{ 

of  times,  and  the  stones  have  beconu-  like  a  imrrot's  babble 
to  him — a  mere  mechanical  rehearsal. 

"  How  many  patients  are  there  in  the  institution?" 
This  question  was  asked  in  the  first  days  of  May,  1878. 
"How  many?     The  average  number?     Well,  about  three 
hundred  and  forty."     Such  a  community  of  reason-wrecked 
unfortunates  !     Of  that  number  how  many  could  exclaim  with 
King  Lear — 

"The  tempest  in  my  mind 
Dotli  from  my  senses  take  all  feeling  else, 
Save  what  beats  there." 

And  how  many  more  among  all  the  wretched  ones  confined 
within  those  stately  walls,  though  perhaps  unable  to  formulate 
their  feelings  in  words,  might,  nevertheless,  be  regarded  in 
that  distressful  state  into  which  Macbeth  fell  after  the  death 
of  Duncan,  a  state  in  which  they  forever  hear  a  voice  crying — 

"  Sleep  no  more ! 
Glamis  hath  murdered  sleep;  and  therefore  Cawdor 
Shall  sleep  no  more, — Macbeth  shall  sleep  no  more." 

And  these  start  up  in  the  silent  hours  with  cries  of  agony 
and  terror  that  startle  the  sane  mind  and  courageous  soul. 

The  psychological  condition  of  any  considerable  number 
of  these  afflicted  persons  it  would  be  impossible  to  give  in  a 
sketch  so  brief;  indeed,  it  is  doubtful  if  such  matter  would 
prove  interesting  to  the  general  reader. 

The  general  belief  that  an  insane  asylum  must  necessarily 
be  a  frightful  bedlam,  where  unearthly  yells,  and  howls,  and 
shrieks,  and  oaths,  and  pleadings  forever  torture  the  air,  is  a 
mistake — an  error  inherited  from  the  i)ast,  when  lunatics  were 
treated  like  wild  beasts,  and  naturally  their  malady  wouhl  be 
intensified  and  their  solace  consisted  in  howling.  Now  things 
have  changed.  The  insane  are  no  more  treated  as  creatures 
to  whom  kindness  need  not  be  shown.  And  the  efi*ect  on  the 
health  of  the  patients  can  scarcely  be  estimated.  The  wards 
and  halls  of  a  modern,  well-managed  mad-house  are  usually 
as  quiet  as  the  corridors  of  a  convalescent  hospital.  Of  course, 
in  the  wards  assigned  to  violent  patients  this  conditida  of 
quietude  is  lial)le  to  be  frequently  broken  in  upon  l)y  some  of 
the   many   demented  orators,   preachers,   poets  and    singers, 


504  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

whose    incoherent    eloquence    or    inhjirmonioiis  chants  often 
interrupt  the  repose  of  the  institution. 

There  are  some  interesting  characters  in  the  City  Insane 
Asylum,  men  possessed  of  some  coherence  in  ordinary  matters, 
but  who  have  wild  and  weird  conceptions  in  relation  to  some 
particular  opinion  or  principle.  Such  a  person  is  the  "  Em- 
peror of  America."  A  stout,  muscular  German,  of  low 
statue,  and  a  frowsy  head  of  raven  1)1  ack  hair.  There  is  a 
mystery  about  the  man  which  increases  the  interest  of  all 
visitors.  The  name  of  the  Emj)eror  is  believed  to  be  Lutz. 
His  first  appearance  in  St.  Louis,  so  far  as  known,  was  in 
1876,  about  the  time  the  National  Democratic  Convention 
met.  The  Emperor,  acting  under  orders  from  the  Omniscient, 
arrayed  himself  in  a  fantastic  suit  made  of  flags,  and  armed 
with  a  club  made  a  destructive  foray  upon  a  number  of  plate- 
glass  windows  in  the  neighborhood  of  Sixth  Street  and  Wash- 
ington Avenue.  He  was  captured  after  a  violent  struggle. 
Examination  into  his  condition  clearly  proved  the  fact  of  his 
insanity,  and  he  was  sent  to  the  asylum,  where  he  was  in 
May,  1878,  classed  as  probably  incurable. 

The  Emperor  of  America  relates  that  while  he  was  still  a 
citizen  of  Germany  the  Most  High  God  appeared  to  him,  or 
rather  that  he  was  carried  into  the  Divine  presence,  when  he 
was  informed  by  the  Omnipotent  himself  that  He  had  set  the 
seal  of  His  condemnation  on  republican  governments,  and  had 
thereupon  commissioned  the  Emperor  to  proceed  to  the  work 
of  extirpating  republics  and  building  a  universal  empire,  of 
which  Lutz  was  to  be  sole  and  absolute  ruler.  For  this  mis- 
sion he  claims  he  was  anointed  by  God. 

The  Emperor  realizes  that  he  is  in  confinement,  and 
attributes  his  misfortune  to  a  conspiracy  of  the  Great  Powers 
of  Europe,  who  became  alarmed  and  jealous  of  the  tremen- 
dous success  and  great  power  of  the  Empire  of  America.  The 
Emperor  is  ver}'  autocratic,  and  for  the  most  part  it  is  neces- 
sary to  keep  him  confined  within  the  walls  of  his  cell,  where 
he  spends  time  in  threatening  dire  vengeance  on  his  potent 
enemies. 

Another  one  of  the  earth's  unfortunate  great  men  is  the 
President  of  the  Irish  Republic.      He  has  been  incarcerated  in 


CHARITABLE    AND    REF'ORMATORY.  5()5 

the  asylum,  according  to  his  own  account,  through  the  in- 
fluence and  by  the  order  of  Queen  Victoria.  When  this  ruUn- 
of  Enghind  dies,  the  President  of  the  republic,  made  such  by 
Divine  appointment,  will  depart  at  once  for  Ireland,  whore 
his  agents  have  already  prepared  everything  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  great  Christian  republic,  from  which  all  injustice 
and  wrongs  of  every  sort  will  be  at  once  and  forever  exclndc<]. 
In  his  model  republic  the  Congress  Avill  be  composed  entirely 
of  priests.  The  President  of  the  Irish  Republic  at  the  asylum 
is  a  great  reader  of  newspapers  and  is  an  ardent  labor 
reformer.  He  grows  eloquent  over  the  wrongs  of  the  work- 
ingmen  and  bitter  in  his  denunciation  of  the  subsidized  press. 
He  is  eminentl}'^  a  man  of  peace.  Wars  and  bloodshed  will 
cease  when  the  great  republic  is  established.  If  enemies 
should  rise  up,  the  army  of  the  republic  will  march  against 
them  with  the  standard  of  the  Holy  Cross  l)efore  them,  and 
the  ineffable  light  shed  by  this  symbol  will  strike  terror  into 
the  ranks  of  the  enemy  and  they  will  flee  away.  The  Presi- 
dent is  a  Christian  Socialist,  and  denounces  the  red  flag  of  the 
Commune  with  great  vehemence.  The  cross  of  God,  not  the 
bloody-colored  flag,  must  at  last  triumph  over  tyranny  and 
oppression.  The  President  is  already  far  advanced  in  years, 
and  should  Queen  Victoria  continue  long  on  the  stage  of  life 
the  probability  is  that  the  President  will  not  live  to  inaugurate 
his  ideal  republic.  Before  his  mind  gave  way  this  })erson  was 
a  zealous  labor  reformer. 

And  so  the  visitor  passes  along,  and  sees  around  him 
statesmen,  orators,  poets,  minstrels,  princes,  kings,  potentates, 
angels,  emperors,  and  gods. 

Here  we  have  the  venerable  King  of  Connaught,  a  patriarch 
of  more  than  fourscore  years,  whose  long  white  beard,  snowy 
locks  hanging  over  his  shoulders,  and  sad  expression  of  coun- 
tenance, is  well  calculated  to  produce  a  lasting  impression  on 
the  visitor.  The  king  was  found  upon  the  streets  several 
vears  aijo.  How  he  came  here,  who  brought  him  away  from 
his  island  home,  and  why  he  was  abandoned  iu  his  helpless- 
ness, are  matters  of  conjecture. 

In  another  cell  is  a  great  financier  and  student  of  social 
science,  the  great  problems  of  which  have  evidently  proved  too 


506  TOUK    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

much  for  his  intellect.  He  realizes  that  he  is  surrounded  by 
lunatics,  but  does  not  understand  whv  he  should  be  reoarded 
as  one.  Half  the  people  on  the  outside  he  thinks  should  be 
in  the  asylum,  while  the  majority  within  should  be  turned  out. 
This  man  expects  to  see  a  thousand-dollar  silver  coin  in  circu- 
lation which  shall  be  no  larger  than  a  trade  dollar. 

Then  in  one  of  the  halls  a  tall,  athletic  man  may  be  seen 
any  day  and  at  almost  any  hour  of  the  day,  walking  rapidly 
backward  and  forward.  From  morning  till  night,  day  after 
day,  he  continues  to  stride  within  his  circumscribed  bounds. 
For  a  year  he  averaged  about  thirty  miles  a  day,  or  nearly 
eleven  thousand  miles. 

In  another  place  we  find  the  poor  melancholic,  wearing  his 
life  away  in  a  hopeless  despair. 

Then  we  came  to  a  martial  looking  man,  who  flourished  an 
imaginary  sword  and  gives  the  words  of  command,  and  sets  in 
array  his  imaginary  armies.  Years  ago,  on  one  of  the  ensan- 
guined battle  fields  of  the  South,  this  man  was  shot  in  the  head, 
and  from  that  time  the  liglit  of  reason  was  extinguished,  and 
so  he  continues  ever  the  same,  a  commander  of  men.  His  life 
is  one  long  continued  battle. 

An  old  man  is  possessor  of  more  gold  than  Ophir,  California, 
Australia,  Mexico  and  Peru  ever  produced.  And  yet,  sad  to 
relate,  he  is  prevented  from  enjoying  this  vast  wealth  by  the 
manajjement  of  the  King  of  Canaan,  who  is  envious  of  his 
great  o-ood  fortune. 

These  are  only  illustrative  cases,  a  few  samples  selected 
from  among  hundreds  of  the  wards  of  the  city. 

Among  the  women  whose  reason  has  fled,  the  peculiarities 
of  their  malady  are  still  more  completely  marked.  There  we 
shall  be  introduced  to  Queen  Victoria,  Mrs.  Buchanan,  widow 
of  the  late  President,  James  Buchanan,  as  she  fondh^  believes  ; 
the  Queen  of  the  Fairies,  angels  of  various  names  and  degrees, 
and  poor  despairing  souls  who  have  committed  the  unpardon- 
able sin — such  are  the  phantasies  which  liaunt  their  dreams 
and  disturb  their  wakino;  hours. 

It  is  curious  to  read  the  stories  of  the  lives  of  many  of  the 
female  inmates  in  the  City  Asylum  by  the  light  of  the  revela- 
tions made  by  themselves.     Of  course,  in  the  conversation  of 


I 


CHARITABLK    AND    KKKOKMATOKY.  507 

the  insane  we  expect  to  find  "matter  and  iinportineney 
mixed,"  fact  and  fancy  blended,  but  in  the  halhuinutions  of  the 
disordered  brain  Ave  trace  the  causes  whicii  wioiiLdit  tlic  ruin. 
Disease,  we  say;  but  the  disease  which  is  the  direct  result  of 
intense  thought  and  morbid  broodinjj:  over  a  sin<rie  idea.  The 
monomaniac,  the  hypochondriac,  tiie  sul)ject  of  eircuhir  insan- 
ity, the  nymphomaniac,  all  classes  of  diseased  minds,  mav  be 
here  found  and  studied. 

What  strange  fancies  flit  through  their  disordered  biain.s  ! 
One  imagines  herself  to  be  an  angel ;  another  is  prepariii<: — 
always  preparing,  for  her  bridal,  an  event  that  never  happens  ; 
another  possesses  countless  Avealth  ;  another  is  the  widow  of  a 
president,  or  a  king.  Once  there  Avas  a  poor  young  fadv  who 
claimed  to  be  "the  spouse  of  Christ,  and  daughter-in-law  to 
the  living  God."  One  now  in  the  asylum  never  l)eh()lds  the 
face  and  form  of  a  man  without  piteously  beseeching  him  for  a 
kiss.  Some  talk  with  the  dead,  and  "summon  sj)irits  from 
the  smnmerland  ;"  some  are  forever  looking  for  some  one  who 
never  comes;  and  some  are  always  expecting  to  destroy  an 
enemy,  and  is  always  ready  to  attack  any  one  of  the  sex  as 
that  enemy,  for  among  the  female  patients  jealousv  is  a  potent 
cause  of  insanity.  In  many  cases  the  insanity  of  the  person 
is  attended  by  more  or  less  moral  obliquity,  by  reason  of  which 
the  normal  relations  of  good  and  evil  are  so  distorted  as  some- 
times to  be  completely  inverted.  And  such  cases  sometimes 
exist,  long  before  the  subject  is  even  suspected  of  being  insane. 
In  the  asylum  many  cases  of  this  character  are  met .  Of  course 
in  this  complete  state  of  demoralization  Ave  seldom  fail  to  Avit- 
ness  a  remarkable  disregard  of  truth.  Whether  disease  has  so 
obscured  their  perceptions  as  to  render  them  unable  to  distin- 
guish between  the  real  and  the  imaginary,  or  Avhether,  per- 
ceiving correctly  enough,  they  Avillfully  choose  the  false  rather 
than  the  true,  is  not  always  so  apparent.  But  among  the  pa- 
tients at  the  asylum  the  difKculty  is  not  so  great.  Denientia 
has  completely  overthrown  reason  in  a  majority  ol"  cases.  To 
them  there  can  be  no  right,  no  Avrong,  no  more  than  there  can 
be  rio-ht  and  wrong  conceiA-^ed  of  by  the  fox  in  his  depredations 
on  the  poultry  yard. 

The  patients  at  the  City  Asylum  are  largely  from  the  lower 


508  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

ranks  of  life.  Some  come  from — well,  no  one  knows  where. 
Perhaps  a  majority  of  the  patients  have  been  left  in  the  streets 
of  the  city,  to  be  cared  for  by  their  friends  or  relations,  or  by 
the  local  municipal  and  county  authorities,  who  thereby  relieve 
themselves  from  the  charge  of  their  maintenance.  And  yet, 
Governor  Phelps  could  not  see  a  legal  way  to  approve  of  an 
act  which  placed  the  institution  under  the  authority  of  the 
State,  and  appropriate  a  comparatively  small  amount  for  its 
support.  In  respect  to  some  matters,  the  Governor  is  a  gi'eat 
stickler  for  the  form  and  letter  of  the  law. 

In  addition  to  the  average  number  of  340  patients  treated  in 
the  City  Insane  Asylum  proper,  about  200  incurable  imbeciles 
are  maintained  in  the  City  Poor  House.  In  this  institution, 
the  scenes  presented  are  unexceptionally  painful.  Dr.  Jessop 
has  charge  of  the  wards  appropriated  to  these  wretched  beings. 
Most  of  them  have  passed  to  the  condition  of  complete  imbe- 
cility. Some  of  them  were  always  idiotic,  while  others  have 
become  so  through  disease.  This  institution  is  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Frerich,  Superintendent  of  the  City  Poor 
House.  Death  alone  can  relieve  the  wretched  inmates  of  this 
place.     Many  of  them  are  completely  helpless. 

For  amusement,  the  authorities  have  introduced  balls  and 
sociables.  These  re-unions  of  the  l)etter  behaved  classes  of 
inmates  of  the  City  Asylum  are  held  twice  each  week.  To  be 
denied  participation  in  the  enjoyment  of  these  social  events  is 
esteemed  a  great  punishment  by  the  unfortunates.  The  bene- 
ficial effects  of  these  entertainments  on  the  patients  are  deemed 
to  be  very  great.  Certain  classes  of  patients  receive  more 
benefit  from  quiet  amusement  with  cards,  dominos  and  check- 
ers. The  main  object  of  all  pastimes  allowed  to  patients  is 
the  diversion  of  the  mind  from  morbid  contemplation. 

From  wdiat  we  have  written  it  will  be  understood  that  the 
city  has  under  its  care  nearly  550  patients  suffering  from  men- 
tal maladies,  the  average  cost  of  maintaining  each  one  of  which 
is  about  |175  per  annum,  for  each  patient.  The  whole  cost  of 
maintaining  the  insane  of  the  city  is  not  much  less  than  an 
average  of  $200  for  each  one  cared  for.  This  estimate  includes 
everything. 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  509 

ST.  VINCENT'S  INSTITUTION  FOR  THE  INSANE. 

The  St.  Vincent's  Institution  for  the  Insane,  is  ii  private 
retreat  for  the  mentally  afflicted,  founded  hy  i\w  Sisters  of 
Charity,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  on  the  10th  of 
August,  1858. 

At  present.  Sister  Julia  is  the  Superior,  and  directs  the 
affairs  of  the  institution.  Dr.  J.  K.  Bauduy,  well  known  as 
an  eminent  mental  pathologist  and  instructor  in  the  science 
relating  to  diseases  of  the  nervous  system,  is,  and  has  been  for 
years,  physician  to  the  St.  Vincent's  Institution  for  the  Insane. 

The  grounds  on  which  the  spacious  structure  is  situated 
consists  of  an  entire  block,  fronting  on  Decatur  (or  South 
Ninth)  Street,  and  extending  from  Carroll  to  Marion  Street. 
The  neighborhood,  though  quite  populous,  is  remarkably  (juiet 
and  free  from  the  presence  of  noisy  manufactories. 

The  building  is  large,  well  ventilated,  and  fitted  up  vnth. 
all  modern  conveniences,  and  presents  the  character  and 
appearance  of  a  domestic  retreat  rather  than  a  place  for  the 
seclusion  and  confinement  of  the  insane. 

The  grounds  about  the  stately  building  have  l)een  highly 
improved,  and  are  shaded  by  a  growth  of  old  forest  trees.  It 
has  been  a  constant  aim  with  the  Sisters  in  charge  to  invest 
this  institution  with  everything  appertaining  to  an  ordinary 
home,  in  which  the  patients,  at  all  times  Avhen  the  nature  of 
the  case  will  admit,  are  surrounded  by  all  the  comforts  and 
advantages  of  a  well-regulated  home. 

In  the  management  of  this  institution,  there  have  been 
some  features  introduced,  which  evidently  gives  it  an  immense 
advantage  as  a  mental  sanitarium  over  the  arrangements  at 
the  public  institution.  Better  opportunities  for  amusement 
and  recreation  are  afibrded  than  at  the  asylum  maintained  ])y 
the  municipality. 

It  is  true,  that  as  a  general  rule,  the  two  hundred  and  fifty 
patients  usually  found  in  the  institution  come  from  a  higher 
rank  in  social  grade  than  do  the  patients  found  in  the  City 
Asylum.  But  it  is  impossible  to  conclude  that  on  that  account 
they  are  less  violent  or  more  tractable  when  once  reason  has 
been  hurled  from  its  throne.       While  at  the  public  institution 


510  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  chief  amusement  permitted  to  the  patients  is  the  balls 
o-iven  twice  a  week,  at  St.  Vincent's  the  patients  are  furnished 
an  abundance  of  exercise  in  the  open  air,  in  tlie  carriage,  or  on 
foot.  About  six  miles  from  the  city  the  institution  has  a  farm, 
on  which  is  cultivated  a  variety  of  fruits,  vegetables  and 
flowers  for  the  use  of  the  patients  and  their  keepers  in  the 
institution . 

During  the  spring  and  summer  seasons  the  patients  are 
treated  to  frequent  pic-nic  excursions  to  the  rural  retreat  be- 
lono-ino-  to  the  institution.  It  has  been  found  that  these 
excursions  proved  not  only  enjoyable  to  the  patient,  but  of 
great  value  in  a  remedial  point  of  view. 

In  St.  Vincent's,  as  well  as  in  the  City  Asylum,  the  visitor 
will  always  find  interesting  cases. 

But  why  have  so  many  noble  minds  been  wrecked?  In 
this,  as  well  as  all  other  institutions  for  the  seclusion  and 
treatment  of  the  insane,  attempts  are  made  to  secure  the  pre- 
cise information  necessary  to  answer  the  question.  Whether 
the  failure  to  obtain  and  impart  the  exact  data  from  which  an 
answer  might  be  given  is  due  to  the  carelessness  or  the  inca- 
pacity of  those  who  furnish  the  histories  of  the  cases  of 
patients  admitted,  the  fact  remains  that  the  table  of  assigned 
causes  sent  out  in  reports  of  insane  institutions  possess  little 
value  for  the  student  of  mental  pathology.  "  Inquiries  that 
have  for  their  object  to  cast  some  light  on  the  origin  of  such 
an  appalling  malady  yield  to  no  other  in  point  of  interest  and 
importance,"  remarks  Dr.  Ray;  and  yet  the  careful  inquirer 
will  seldom  rise  from  the  examination  of  such  facts  as  are  pre- 
sented to  him  in  reports  from  asylums,  with  the  conviction 
that  they  have  thrown  much  light  on  the  origin  of  insanity. 
From  these  we  gain  no  clear  insight  into  the  laws,  neither  of 
psychology  nor  of  pathology.  We  read  of  one  who  became 
insane  from  the  "  use  of  patent  medicine."  Another  man  is 
supposed  to  have  become  insane  because  he  was  "  home-sick." 
Four  persons  are  reported  to  have  become  insane  from  *•  over- 
exertion ;"  four  lost  their  reason  through  ' '  anxiet3^ ' '  ' '  Family 
troubles"  is  the  supposed  cause  of  the  insanity  of  three  men 
and  eleven  women.  Some  become  insane  on  account  of 
religious  excitement,  others  from  loss  of  property  ;  some  from 


CHARITABLE    AND    KKKCIRMATOKY.  511 

fright,  others  from  grief;  some  from  intemperance,  and  some 
from  congestive  chills  ;  others  lose  their  minds  on  acconnt  of 
loss  of  property,  while  some  others  become  demented  from 
exposure  to  cold. 

There  is  a  show  of  precision  in  the  tables  ;  an  exact  ncss  in 
the  enumeration  of  the  numl)ers  who  have  been  consigned  to  the 
mental  sanitarium  for  treatment,  whose  maladies  were  caused 
by  this  or  that  event,  or  disappointment,  which  we  may  well 
apprehend  is  not  found  in  nature. 

And  the  causes  named  are  doubtless  sometimes  the  effects 
of  a  mental  derangement  already  deeply  seated.  In  many 
cases  these  so-called  causes  are  the  first  symptoms  which  arrest 
attention  ;  and  by  means  of^  that  common  disposition  to  con- 
found the  post  hoc  with  the  propter  hoc,  they  are  placed  in  the 
relation  of  cause  to  the  subsequent  aberration. 

But  we  do  not  proi30se  to  enter  upon  a  discussion  of  the 
psychological  phenomena  of  insanity.  It  is  ours  to  deal  with 
the  arrangements  which  charity  and  humanity  have  completed 
for  the  care  of  those  so  dreadfully  aiflicted. 

And  we  may  sa}'^  that,  so  far  as  the  ability  of  human 
learning  can  avail;  so  far  as  patient  care  and  Christian  de- 
votion can  alleviate  the  distress  of  the  atflicted,  there  is  no 
institution  in  the  city,  or  elsewhere,  in  which  so  large  a 
measure  of  skill,  so  complete  a  service,  and  so  large  an  amount 
of  Christian  self-sacrifice  is  undergone,  as  at  the  St.  Vincent's 
Institution  for  the  Insane. 

To  St.  Vincent's  all  classes  of  the  insane  are  admitted,  the 
melancholic,  the  maniac,  the  monomaniac,  the  gentle,  and  the 
violent.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  under  such  circumstances,  the 
gentle  ladies,  who  are  the  managers,  have  many  most  trying 
and  disagreeable  duties  to  perform.  No  one,  unless  through 
long  years  of  training,  and  the  highest  qualification  for  the 
special  duty  of  attending  the  insane,  can  properly  minister  to 
the  diseased  mind.  In  the  language  of  Dr.  Bauduy,  "  The 
perverted  mental  and  moral  nature  of  the  insane  patient  pre- 
sents difficulties  which  are  surmounted  only  by  long  experience 
and  the  cultivation  of  the  highest  of  the  Christian  virtues — 
charity,  fortitude    under  adverse    circumstances,   self-control 


512  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

under  the  most  exasperating  provocations,  and  a  confident  re- 
liance upon  a  Higher  Power  when  danger  arises." 

We  know  of  no  class  or  order  of  persons  who  so  well  meet 
the  requirements  here  set  forth,  as  the  Sisters  of  Charity. 
Their  thorough  organization ;  their  practical  education  in  all 
that  pertains  to  the  avocation,  and  by  the  consecration  of  their 
lives  to  a  religious  idea,  they  are  fitted  to  perform  their  duty 
without  fear  or  favor,  assured  that  they  have  a  reward  in  the 
land  of  the  leal. 

Perhaps  the  consummate  address  and  devotion  of  the 
nurses  and  managers  of  this  private  institution  may  be  as- 
signed as  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  assertion  that  it  presents, 
in  several  nnportant  particulars  of  its  management,  a  superi- 
ority over  the  City  Asylum,  for  the  seclusion  and  treatment  of 
the  insane. 

At  the  least  we  can  say,  that  in  every  feature  the  St.  Vin- 
cent's Institution  for  the  Insane  is  one  of  the  noblest  institu- 
tions of  the  kind  in  our  land. 

Reader,  we  have  purposely  omitted  a  parade  of  the  un- 
fortunate inmates  of  this  asylum.  Such  as  are  the  inmates  of 
the  City  Asylum,  such  also  are  the  wretched  ones  of  St.  Vin- 
cent's. To  pass  through  one  mad-house  is  to  pass  through 
them  all — varying  in  external  appearance  only,  the  wrecks  and 
fragments  of  mentality  are  ever  the  same  wherever  found. 

Such,  as  we  have  endeavored  to  describe  them,  are  the 
arrangements  made  in  St.  Louis  for  the  confinement  and  medi- 
cal treatment  of  the  most  unfortunate  of  all  the  children  of 
earth.  To  i)icture  the  scenes  of  w^retchedness,  and  hopeless- 
ness, and  despair  daily  to  be  witnessed  w^ithin  the  walls  of 
those  two  spacious  structures,  the  City  Insane  Asylum  and  St. 
Vincent's  Institution  for  the  Insane,  is  a  task  from  which  a 
sensitive  mind  must  ever  shrink. 


HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


JUVENILE    OFFENDERS    AND    UNFORTUNATE    CHILDREN. 

St.  Louis  is  not  free  from  any  of  the  many  evils  which 
afflict  society  in  all  the  civilized  world.  Her  teeming  popula- 
tion, gathered  from  all  the  continents  and  almost  all  the 
nations  on  the  ftice  of  the  earth,  representing  every  condition 
in  the  scale  of  moral  and  intellectual  development,  it  would 
be  unreasonable  to  expect  a  condition  of  Arcadian  puritv  and 
simplicity  in  existence  among  so  many  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  people.  All  society  has  its  evils,  and  the  situation  in  St. 
Louis  is  by  no  means  exceptional. 

And  yet  society  is  the  condition  outside  of  which  man 
can  not  attain  to  moral  order,  hence  the  preservation  of 
society  is  for  the  body  politic  the  highest  of  rights,  and  for 
the  individual  the  first  and  highest  of  duties.  This  al)solute 
and  inalienable  right  can  only  be  enforced  by  means  of  com- 
pulsion and  repression,  which  thus  become  rights  inherent  in 
society. 

The  right  of  compulsion  society  exercises  when  it  compels 
those  services  on  the  part  of  the  individual  which  are  neces- 
sary to  its  well-being.  The  right  of  repression  is  exercised 
when  society  seeks  to  anticipate  and  prevent  those  acts  on  the 
part  of  its  individual  members  which  would  endanger  its  secu- 
rity. Exercised  within  these  limits,  compulsion  and  repression 
are  legitimate,  for  they  are  absolutely  necessary,  not  simply 
for  the  presentation  of  any  particular  form  of  social  develop- 
ment, but  for  the  preservation  of  the  social  order  itself  in  its 
most  general  and  universal  sense. 

Hence  the  device  of  houses  of  detention  and  correction. 
In  o-reat  hives,  like  St.  Louis,  temptation,  disposition,  and 
environments  cause  hundreds  of  children  of  both  sexes,  at  a 
tender  age,  to  become  transgressors,  and  thus  to  endanger  the 

33  [513] 


514  TOUB    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

existence  of  social  order.  What  is  to  be  done  with  these  juve- 
nile offenders — girls  and  boys,  who  have  become  adepts  in  all 
manner  of  vice,  and  criminals  in  the  eyes  of  the  law?  In  other 
times  such  offenders  would  have  been  committed  to  the  pris- 
ons, and  otherwise  treated  precisely  as  other  criminals.  But 
the  new  zeal, — "the  zeal  according  to  knowledge,"  of  lat^ 
displayed  in  the  interest  of  humanity,  has  become  so  active — 
and  proves  to  be  of  so  much  importance — that  it  has  received 
special  direction  and  a  particular  designation,  which  has  been 
appropriately  manifested  in  the  manner  of  executing  the  re- 
quirements of  society  in  the  repression  of  crime.  Houses  of 
refuge  and  prisons  are  no  longer  such  as  they  once  were. 
Humanity  has  gone  far  toward  the  conquest  of  brutality  in  the 
treatment  of  the  violators  of  the  rules  of  society.  Much  has 
already  been  accomplished,  much  remains  yet  to  be  done  before 
society  can  be  fully  acquitted  of  blame. 

The  St.  Louis  House  of  Refuge,  situated  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  city,  strictly  speaking,  is  a  prison  for  the  detention 
of  juvenile  offenders.  Its  discipline  is  that  of  a  prison,  and 
in  all  features  of  its  operation  it  is  distinctively  a  penitentiary 
for  the  detention  and  correction  of  youthful  criminals.  So 
far,  well.  But  by  some  strange  mixing  of  moral  ideas,  the 
city  government  condemns  to  imprisonment  all  unfortunate 
children  who  may  be  left  as  orphans,  or  otherwise  abandoned 
to  the  care  of  the  municipal  authorities.  Strange  perversion 
of  justice !  Singular  want  of  practical  sense  in  those  who 
have  exercised  authority  in  this  matter  !  But  of  this  more  in 
another  place. 

The  House  of  Refuge,  prison,  for  such  it  is,  under  the 
management  of  Mr.  John  D.  Shaffer,  is  a  model  institution. 
There  can  be  no  just  criticism,  either  against  his  method  of 
discipline  or  personal  influence  in  directing  the  reformation  of 
the  bad,  and  saving  from  contamination  the  unfortunate  ones 
committed  to  his  keeping.  In  fact  the  condition  of  the  insti- 
tution is  admiralile,  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  make  such  an 
old  structure  deserve  that  appellation.  There  isnot  enough 
room  for  the  proper  accommodation  of  the  large  number  of 
inmates.  Neatness  and  order,  however,  is  conspicuous  in 
every  part  of  the  house,  in  the  shops,  indeed  everywhere. 


CHARITABLK    AND    UKFOKMATORY.  515 

The  visitor  to  the  House  of  Refuge  will  at  once  he  struck 
by  the  prison-appearance  of  the  twenty-feet  walls  which  Hank 
the  building,  which  is  itself  grated  and  barred.  On  entering 
the  door,  a  narrow  hall,  not  more  than  eight  or  ten  feet  in 
width,  furnishes  a  passage-way  across  the  wichh  oftlic  building 
to  the  prison  yard  proi)er.  Of  cour.sc  some  one  must  h>t  the 
visitor  in,  for  to  break  down  the  heavy  and  strongly  barnul 
door  would  be  no  easy  task,  and  i)eople  do  not  roam  at  will 
about  the  prison  yard,  Avith  its  beautiful  center-piece,  a  lovely 
little  garden  of  flowers,  set  in  the  midst  of  a  bare,  paved,  and 
cindered  yard,  surrounded  by  the  wdiite  board  wall,  just 
twenty  feet  high,  and  smooth,  and  difficult  to  surmount, 
inasmuch  as  no  convenient  ladders  for  scaling  jjurposes  are 
left  about  in  accessible  places.  The  visitor  will  have  a  com- 
panion— in  all  probability,  Mr.  George  Onslow,  Assistant 
Superintendent,  an  agreeable,  chatty  gentleman,  he  is  well 
acquainted  with  every  feature  of  the  institution,  and  perfectly 
frank  in  communicating  his  knowledge  to  the  visitor. 

Generally  the  first  [)lace  visited  is  the  chaii-caning  shoj), 
where  a  large  number  of  boys  are  engaged  in  weaving  the 
cane  into  the  seat  frames  of  the  ordinary  cane-seated  chairs. 
Of  course  a  great  many  readers  of  these  pages  know  all  aljout 
the  process  of  caning  chairs,  and  therefore  we  will  not 
describe  it  now,  further  than  to  say  that  for  seven  hours  a 
day  the  fingers  of  the  bad  boys  who  have  been  caught,  and 
the  good  boys  who  have  been  unfortunate — 'tis  all  the  same 
undel*  our  blessed  institutions — are  kept  quite  nimble  at  this 
occupation.  Reader,  if  you  visit  the  House;  of  Refuge,  when 
you  have  looked  at  the  lively  boys  weaving  their  cane  seats 
for  chairs,  you  will  then  be  conducted  into  a  general  lavatory 
and  range  of  little  square  wardrobes — mere  boxes  fastened 
to  the  walls,  where  the  boys  keep  their  uniform  holiday  suits, 
and  whatever  jDroperty  besides  they  may  l)e  abh?  to  ol)tain. 
Each  boy  has  his  own  case,  and  no  other  j^erson,  save  the 
officers,  have  any  right  to  examine  the  contents. 

From  this  place  you  will  very  probably  be  conducted  up  a 
flight  of  steps  into  the  shoe  shop,  where  some  sixty  boys  devoto 
themselves  for  seven  hours  every  day  in  attending  the  ma- 
chinery, where  ever  so  many  hundred  pairs  of  nice  sewed  shoes 


516  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

are  made  for  ladies  and  girls  and  boys  every  day.  The  shop 
which  is  operated  by  a  shoe  merchant  and  manufacturer  of 
the  city,  is  supplied  with  splendid  machinery  to  do  everything, 
from  cutting  the  leather  to  putting  the  last  touch  of  burnishing 
on  the  completed  shoe.  It  is  a  noisy  place,  and  while  you 
Avill  be  interested  in  observing  the  nicety  of  the  work,  3^et  you 
will  find  that  it  is  not  a  good  room  for  carrying  on  a  conver- 
sation, and  will  not  regret  when  you  have  gone  through. 

Mr.  Onslow,  for  we  assume  he  will  be  the  guide  for  all 
visitors,  will  conduct  you  down  stairs  again.  You  take  a  look 
at  the  bakery,  observing  for  a  few  moments  the  great  boiler, 
filled  with  potatoes,  the  great  ovens  occupied  by  swelling 
loaves  of  Avholesome-looking  bread,  and  3'ou  are  ready  to  pass 
into  the  school-room  and  theatrical  hall.  This  place  is  fitted 
up  with  a  neat  stage,  with  a  handsome  drop-curtain  and  quite 
a  property  in  shifting  scenes.  Here,  on  special  occasions, 
youthful  Garricks  and  incipient  Rosciuses  strut  their  brief 
hour  across  the  stage — that  mimic  stage  Avhich  is  untrodden 
by  professionals,  and  the  like  of  which  they  are  not  permitted 
to  see  in  the  great  free  world  without. 

Then,  after  satisfying  yourself  about  the  eminent  fitness  of 
the  theatrical  stage  as  a  means  of  instruction,  you  will  be  shown 
the  lavatory,  adjoining  the  dining-room  ;  then  you  will  pass 
into  a  large  basement  hall,  where  there  are  a  great  many 
tables,  and  if  at  the  proper  hour,  you  will  see  more  than  a 
hundred  boys  of  all  sizes,  ages — under  twenty-one  years — and 
representing  many  nationalities,  and  exhibiting  various  physiog- 
nomical peculiarities,  busied  at  these  tables,  taking  their  food 
with  as  much  apparent  relish  as  ever  did  any  gourmand  the 
viands  of  Delmonico.  The  food  furnished  is  abundant  and  of 
good  quality. 

The  inmates  of  the  House  of  Refuge  are  all  compelled  to 
attend  school.  Not  less  than  three  hours  in  each  day  are 
passed  in  the  school-rooms.  There  are  four  grades,  into  some 
one  of  which  every  boy  must  enter  when  he  is  committed  to 
the  house.  The  boys  are  also  instructed  in  vocal  music  by  a 
competent  teacher. 

There  are  two  dormitories  in  which  the  boys  lodge.  A 
watchman  remains  on  duty  in  each  one  of  these  throughout 


CHARITABLE    AND    liEFOUMATORY.  517 

the  night.  As  stated  above,  the  wliole  place  is  a  model  of 
cleanliness  and  neatness.  The  mattresses  an;  of  straw,  hut  tlic 
sheets  are  Avhite  and  eleanl}^  at  all  times.  'J'hc  dormitories  arc 
well  ventilated,  and  the  sanitary  condition  of  tiie  whole 
establishment  reHeets  credit  upon  the  8ui)erintendent  and  bis 
staff  of  assistants. 

The  discii)line  is  firm  and  the  rules  somewhat  severe.  Cor- 
poral punishment  is  inflicted  for  Hairrant  violations  of  the 
rules.  Cruel  and  unusual  punishment  for  disolx-dicnce  has 
been  abolished.  Cells  are  not  in  use,  but  in  cvcrvthini,^  else 
the  House  of  Refuge  in  its  govermnent  is  emi)hatically  a 
prison. 

It  is  well  for  the  city  that  the  Superintendent  is  a  man  of 
clear  judgment,  firm  will,  and  humane  disposition.  The 
House  of  Refuge  very  effectually  restrains  the  lawless  youths 
committed  by  the  petty  criminal  and  misdemeanor  courts  dur- 
ing the  term  of  his  confinement,  but  it  is  exceedingly  doubt- 
ful if  many  complete  reformations  in  character  are   etTected. 

At  best,  institutional  life  is  bad.  The  children  of  public 
institutions  and  asylums  can  not,  as  a  general  rule,  become 
very  excellent  citizens.  The  effect  of  association  and  discipline 
in  orphanages  and  reform  schools  is  generally  of  a  character 
which  does  not  recommend  such  institutions  as  the  foster- 
mothers  of  the  future  citizens  of  our  land. 

In  the  female  department,  over  which  ^Nlrs.  M.  J.  Shaffer 
presides  as  Matron,  there  were  in  the  first  months  of  1878 
nearly  one  hundred  inmates.  Like  the  boys'  department,  this 
institution  is  peopled  by  two  classes — the  vicious  and  criminal, 
and  the  poor  and  abandoned.  Many  of  the  girls  Avere  com- 
mitted to  the  refus^e  for  immoralities — some  of  them  fak(Mi 
from  houses  of  bad-repute,  and  others  were  committed  l)y  the 
courts  on  account  of  lewd  acts.  The  fallen  girls  had  gone 
far  astray  ;  some  had  already  grown  quite  callous  ere  they  wci-c 
sent  down.  Yet,  necessarily,  the  innocent  orphan  girl,  com- 
mitted simply  on  account  of  having  no  home  an<l  no  friends, 
must  be  made  to  conform  to  the  same  severe  discipliiu;  and 
take  the  chances  of  l)eing  contaminated  by  association  with  the 
most  vicious  and  depraved  3'oung  girls,  taken  from  the  very 
ste^vs  of  sin  and  shame.     The  picture  is  not  a  lovely  one,  and 


518  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  responsibility  for  blighting  lives  and  ruining  souls  rests 
upon  that  organ  of  society,  the  city  government,  which  does 
not  make  a  distinction  between  the  criminal  and  the  unfortu- 
nate, which  regards  innocent  poverty  as  no  more  entitled  to 
respect  and  gentle  treatment  than  shameless  crime.  The  good 
and  the  bad  go  together  under  the  law,  and  the  possibility  of 
causing  more  criminals  to  be  made  than  can  possibly  be 
reformed,  and  thereby  entailing  burdens  on  society ;  the 
burdens  of  prosecuting  the  vicious  and  defending  itself  from 
the  attacks  of  the  reckless,  some  of  whom  have  been  made 
vicious  and  reckless  through  contamination  while  in  an  insti- 
tution belonging  to  the  city.  No  fault  can  be  found  with  the 
management  of  the  institution,  either  in  the  male  or  female 
departments.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Shaffer  if 
graduates  are  turned  out  of  that  place  of  detention  worse  in 
morals  than  when  they  were  sent  down.  It  is  the  fault  of  the 
city  government,  which  has  not  provided  for  drawing  the  lines 
of  distinction  between  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  innocent  and 
the  guilty. 

Life  in  institutions  of  this  kind  must  necessarily  be  of  a 
routine  character.  The  inmates  are  required  to  rise  at  a  cer- 
tain predetermined  hour,  take  their  morning  meal  at  a  certain 
time,  devote  a  definite  number  of  hours  to  labor,  a  certain 
number  more  in  the  school-room  ;  take  exercise  and  recreation 
in  a  certain  prescribed  Avay  and  at  fixed  hours  of  the  day,  and 
finally  must  retire  for  the  night  simultaneously  and  by  rule. 
Men  and  women  brought  up  under  such  conditions  are  not 
likely  to  become  very  self-reliant — ^their  lives  must  be  in  a 
large  measure  merely  mechanical,  and  they  will  partake  more 
of  the  character  of  automata  than  rational  beings. 

To  compensate  for  the  necessarily  rigid  discipline  required, 
a  system  of  rewards  and  punishments  is  provided  to  stimulate 
individual  jimbition.  When  first  committed,  the  girls  or  boys 
have  thirty  days  in  Avhich  to  prove  themselves,  and  during 
which  time  they  receive  neither  marks  of  merit  nor  demerit. 
From  that  time  their  good  or  bad  behavior  is  entered  to  their 
account.  It  is  possible  under  this  system  for  the  inmates  to 
emancipate  themselves  from  the  institution  within  two  years. 
But  orood  behavior  is  not  an  evidence  of  reformation.     On  the 


CHARITABLK    AND    REFORMATORY.  blit 

contrary,  the  shrewd  bad  boy  or  girl  knows  woll  enough  that 
there  is  no  hojDe  of  escape  except  through  a  strict  obedience  to 
all  the  requirements  of  the  institutional  law,  and  they  (juictly 
submit  to  the  inevitable  and  are  models  of  good  behavior  within 
the  house  of  detention,  in  order  that  they  may  the  sooner  re- 
gain their  freedom,  when  they  can  again  follow  their  propen- 
sities with  more  tact  and  shrewdness,  on  account  of  the 
experience  they  have  gained. 

Punishment  is  meted  out  to  the  girls  as  well  as  the  boys, 
only  the  former  are  not  subjected  to  corporeal  chastisement. 

How  did  these  scores  of  boys  and  girls  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  authorities?  Whose  children  ?  Where  did  they  come 
from  ?  It  would  require  the  space  of  a  volume  to  answer  these 
questions.  Some  are  the  offspring  of  shiftless,  unenterprising 
parents  ;  others  are  the  children  of  parents  who  disagree,  the 
fathers  went  awa}^  and  the  mothers  either  became  reckless  or 
too  poor  to  care  for  them  ;  some  are  the  children  of  poor, 
sickly  widows ;  others  are  vicious  and  criminal,  the  fallen 
among  girls  and  the  thievish  among  boys.  But  all  are  on  a 
level  at  the  House  of  Refuge.  The  management  of  that  place 
is  unexceptionable,  the  system  is  bad.  If  the  inmates  were  all 
criminals  then  it  would  be  a  model  institution  ;  if  the  inmates 
were  all  simply  unfortunate,  then  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Shatfer  would 
make  it  a  Iiome  for  them.     Such  it  is  not  now. 


THE   POOR. 


THE    PROVIDENT   ASSOCIATION    AND    ITS   WORK. 

Occasional  Adsitors  to  the  great  human  hive  called  St. 
Louis  do  not — indeed  they  can  not — know  anything  of  the 
miseries  atJlicting  thousands,  hidden  by  the  dingy  brick  walls 
of  buildings  in  the  tenement  districts.  If  some  mighty  magi- 
cian, gifted  with  supernatural  powers,  should  suddenly  render 
those  opaque  walls  transparent,  opening  to  the  vision  of  every 
passer-by  the  scenes  forever  being  enacted  in  the  haunts  of 
the  lowly,  even  the  old  citizens  of  the  place  would  themselves 
be  appalled  by  the  wretchedness  revealed  to  them. 

The  visitor  sees  stately  marts  of  trade,  magnificent  palaces 
of  traflic,  lordly  mansions,  beautiful  villas,  lovely  parks,  roads 
pared  and  lined  by  the  homes  of  the  opulent — in  short,  he 
only  sees  the  pomp  and  glitter,  and  splendors  which  large 
accumulations  of  wealth  have  caused  to  appear.  The  stranger 
is  driven  through  Lucas  Place,  on  Grand  Avenue,  about 
Lafayette  Park,  to  Shaw's  Garden,  through  the  Compton  Hill 
district,  to  the  Fair  Grounds,  through  Stoddard's  Addition — 
everywhere,  in  fact,  where  the  wealth  and  gi-eatness ,  and  pride 
and  glory  of  St.  Louis  can  be  shown  to  the  best  advantage. 
The  stranger  is  the  spectator,  the  city  the  circus-ring  of  the 
show.  Can  such  a  visitor  ever  acquire  any  information,  or  be 
able  to  form  a  conception  of  the  character  of  the  masses  of  the 
city?     Certainly  not. 

And  let  us  be  frank  enough  to  confess  that  only  a  very 
small  proportion  of  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis  know  anything  of 
the  shadowed  lives  of,  not  hundreds,  but  thousands  of  our 
fellow-mortals,  who  live,  suffer,  die,  and  are  at  last  left  to 
moulder  into  indistinguishable  dust  in  the  paupers'  cemetery. 
Physicians,  whose  duty  calls  them  to  attend  the  poor,  visitors 
of  benevolent  societies,  to  a  limited  extent  reporters  of  the 

[520] 


CHARITABLE    AND    KEFOUMATOUY.  5^1 

daily  press,  and  patrolmen  on  the  police  force,  are  the  only  ones 
who  knoAv  anything  of  the  want  and  woe  Avhich  are  hidden  in 
several  large  districts  of  the  city.  And  liiis  atHiction  of  poverty 
is  not  limited  to  particular  districts,  but  isolated  cases  of  desti- 
tution are  to  be  found  scattered  all  over  the  city.  What  gleam 
of  light  can  appear  to  thousands  of  these?  "What  sunburst  of 
hope  can  lighten  their  pathway?  Life  to  them  nmst  be  one 
long  night  of  sorro\y.  Shall  we  then  say  that  Providence  is 
unkind,  or  fiite  spiteful  to  them  ?  No,  indeed.  ' '  The  i)()or  you 
have  always  with  you,"  \vas  the  declaration  of  the  world's 
wisest,  purest  and  holiest  instructor.  It  was  a  fact  then  ;  it  is 
realization  now.  If  there  were  no  poor  there  could  be  no 
benevolence  ;  and  if  no  human  sympathies,  then  nothing  but  a 
dreary  sordidness  Ayhich  would  overshadow  every  soul,  and 
leave  nothing  but  an  utterly  despicable  sellishness  in  the 
churches  and  in  the  world. 

"  It  is  more  l)lessed  to  give  than  to  receive."  By  the 
presence  of  the  poor  the  great  heart  of  huni:niity  is  warmed 
into  action,  and  prevented  from  chilling  and  dying. 

We  boast  of  the  wealth,  the  grandeur  and  commercial 
greatness  of  St.  Louis.  Shall  we  not  also  boast  of  the  genuine 
benevolence  and  large  humanity  which  is  so  prominent  a 
characteristic  of  her  people?  We  have  cause  for  thankful- 
ness, at  least,  because  the  cry  of  the  distressed  is  sure  to 
UAvaken  responsive  emotions  in  the  hearts  of  the  citizens. 

Within  the  corporate  limits  of  St.  Louis  then^  arc  con- 
stantly nearly  three  thousand  families  who  are  ol)jei-ts  of 
charitv.  If  the  average  number  of  persons  in  each  family  ])e 
four,  then  there  are  twelve  thousand  men,  women  and  children 
who  have  not  the  means  of  sustenance,  or  the  ability  to  pro- 
cure food  to  keep  them  from  starving. 

To  maintain  these,  the  benevolence  of  thi^  people  has  beiMi 
appealed  to,  not  in  vain,  and  for  a  period  of  about  nineteen 
years  a  voluntary  association  has  been  engaged  in  relieving 
the  distressed  by  distributing  the  contributions  of  the   cliiui- 

table. 

The  beginnings  of  the  St.  Louis  Proyident  Association 
were  not  such  as  to  awaken  any  very  enthusiastic  hopes  of  its 


622  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

future  beneficence.  There  lived  in  the  city  a  German  gentle- 
man— a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  formerly  a  citizen  of  Tennes- 
see— whose  attention  had  been  painfully  called  to  the  lack  of 
efficient  means  for  the  jDrompt  relief  of  the  suffering  poor.  He 
thought,  devised,  and  we  may  say,  prayed  for  light  on  the 
problem  of  how  to  relieve  the  suffering  and  deal  justly  by  all. 
He  spoke  of  the  matter  which  lay  near  his  heart  to  a  fellow- 
worker  in  the  field  of  labor  among  the  poor. 

The  minds  of  Rev.  F.  Lack  and  Mr.  Thomas  Morrison  were 
singularly  in  unison  in  the  conclusion  that  something  ought  to 
be  done,  and  in  the  resolution  to  do  something  in  behalf  of  the 
poor  of  the  cit3^  This  resolution  of  two  men  was  made  known 
to  others  with  like  feelings,  and  the  Saint  Louis  Provident 
Association  soon  came  into  existence.  It  was  a  noble  enter- 
prise earnestly  undertaken  and  triumphantly  completed.  It 
is  now  the  great  eleemosynary  almoner  of  the  people  of  St. 
Louis.  Two  humane  gentlemen  thought  about  it,  talked 
about  it  to  each  other,  agreed  concerning  it,  spoke  about  it  to 
others,  and  the  beginning  was  made  ;  the  years  have  completed 
the  structure  on  the  foundation  laid  by  them,  and  those  earnest 
men  proved  the  benefactors  of  their  race. 

The  objects  to  be  accomplished,  and  the  principles  upon 
which  the  association  proposed  to  act  were  not  vague  or  matter 
of  conjecture.  From  the  beginning  the  aims  of  the  Association 
were  two-fold — the  elevation  of  the  moral  and  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  indigent,  and,  so  far  as  is  compatible  with  the  de- 
sign, the  relief  of  their  necessities.  It  is  the  design  of  the 
Superintendent,  Rev.  F.  Lack,  to  make  the  work  of  the  asso- 
ciation essentially  reformatory  as  well  as  benevolent ;  in  other 
words,  to  combine  the  qualities  of  justice  and  mercy  in  dis- 
pensing material  assistance.  Hence  the  adoption  of  regula- 
tions for  the  government  of  the  Association  in  its  work,  which 
debars  a  promiscuous  claim  for  relief  and  places  all  Avho 
receive  aid  under  restraint. 

No  relief  is  given  until  a  personal  investigation  has  been 
made  into  each  case  of  application  by  visitation  and  inquiry. 
No  relief  is  extended  to  any  one  except  through  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  section  in  which  the  applicants  reside.  The 
association,  in  relieving  the  poor,  give  only  necessary  articles. 


CHARITABLE    AND    KEFOKMATORY .  523 

and  only  what  is  immediatoly  necessary  and  that  which  is  least 
susceptible  of  abuse.  Another  i)recaiitioii,  to  prevent  imposi- 
tion and  at  the  same  time  relieve  the  reallv  dcserviiiir,  is  the 
plan  of  giving  only  in  snndl  (iu:intities  and  for  inunediate 
necessities,  only  the  staple  i)rovisions  necessary  to  sustain 
life.  Cornmeal,  flour,  and  some  kind  of  meat  are  the  only 
articles  dispensed,  except  in  cases  where  the  indigent  are  sick, 
when  sugar  and  coffee  or  tea  are  given  in  small  (juantities. 

Relief  is  always  extended  by  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Provident  Association  at  once.  When  a  case  of  destitution 
is  reported,  an  immediate  investigation  is  made  and  prompt 
relief  afforded.  Assistance  is  never  prolonged  after  the  actual 
necessity  for  it  ceases.  Long  years  of  life  passed  in  relieving 
destitution  has  eminently  qualified  Rev.  Mr.  Lack  for  the  judi- 
cious exercise  of  the  discretion  with  which  he  must  necessarily 
be  clothed  in  extending,  modifying  and  restricting  relief  to 
applicants,  according  to  the  necessities  of  their  particular  case. 

One  of  the  inflexible  rules  laid  down  by  ]\Ir.  Lack,  for  the 
administration  of  the  charity  entrusted  to  his  superintendence, 
is  that  entire  abstinence  from  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors 
shall  be  observed  by  all  beneficiaries,  during  the  time  they  re- 
ceive relief;  that  such  as  have  children  of  proper  age  shall 
keep  them  in  school,  unless  prevented  by  unavoidable  circum- 
stances, and  that  such  as  have  children  sufiiciently  grown  shall 
apprentice  them  to  some  trade,  or  send  them  out  to  service. 

The  Avisdom  of  this  regulation  is  apparent  at  a  glance.  By 
such  ruling  the  poor  are  made  parties  to  their  own  improve- 
ment and  elevation.  They  are  taught  the  lesson  of  self-susten- 
ance. A  willful  disregard  of  this  regulation  debars  the  j)ersons 
concerned  from  further  assistance. 

It  is  not  the  design  of  the  Provident  Association  to  give  aid 
to  persons  who,  from  infirmity,  imbecility,  old  age,  or  from  any 
other  cause,  are  likely  to  continue  unable  to  earn  their  own 
support,  and  consequently  to  be  permanently  dependent.  Hut. 
to  meet  such  cases,  immediate  relief  is  aflbrded,  and  continued 
until  the  persons  interested  can  be  cared  for  by  the  })roper 
authorities  of  the  city. 

All  persons  who  manifest  a  purpose  of  depending  upon  the 
association  for  a  support,  by  a  failure  to  make  j)r()p('r  efforts 


524  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

in  their  own  behalf,  are  debarred  from  participation  in  the 
benefits  of  the  alms  distributed,- because  such  dependence  upon 
alms  would  be  incompatible  with  their  own  good  and  the 
objects  of  the  institution. 

The  mode  of  dispensing  this  noble  charity  is  exceedingly 
simple,  and  yet  very  complete  and  effective.  A  visiting  book 
is  provided.  The  name  of  a  destitute  family  is  reported.  The 
Superintendent,  or  some  one  authorized  to  act,  at  once  proceeds 
to  make  an  investigation.  The  whole  history  of  the  family  is 
embraced  in  the  regular  questions  asked  of  all,  such  as  the 
name,  number  in  family,  nativity,  religious  connection,  if  any  ; 
occupation,  widower  or  widow,  and  such  other  information  as 
may -be  gathered.  If  the  applicants  belong  to  any  church  or 
other  benevolent  association,  they  receive  a  card,  directing 
them  to  the  charities  of  the  church  to  which  they  belong.  If 
afterward  the  card  is  presented,  it  is  regarded  as  an  evidence 
that  the  church  or  society  does  not  mean  to  take  charge  of  the 
case,  and  the  Superintendent  of  the  Association  relieves  their 
distress.  If,  however,  the  indigent  persons  belong  to  no  church 
or  society  of  a  charitable  or  benevolent  character,  they  receive 
a  card  directing  them  to  one  of  the  Association's  depots,  where 
their  wants  are  supplied.  On  being  relieved  they  receive  a 
card  on  which  the  name  of  the  family,  the  number,  the  rela- 
tionship, and  the  place  of  residence  is  written.  On  the  back 
of  this  card  are  the  names  of  the  twelve  months,  w^ith  blank 
lines  for  each,  on  which  the  Superintendent  charges  the  amount 
of  the  relief  extended.  The  beneficiary  takes  this  card  and  is 
required  to  produce  it  every  time  a  call  is  made  for  relief. 
Without  this  card  they  can  get  no  help.  Thus,  a  complete 
check  is  kept  upon  all  classes  of  the  alms-receiving  people. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  nearly  seven-eighths  of  those  who  apply 
for  relief  are  widows  with  children,  left  destitute  and  alone  in 
the  w^orld.  In  religion,  the  applicants  for  relief  were  divided 
as  follows  :  Families,  members  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
one  hundred  and  sixty-eight ;  families,  connected  with  various 
Protestant  churches,  fortj'-eight ;  families,  connected  with  no 
church,  two  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-one. 

In  respect  to  occupation,  the  applicants  for  relief  were 
divided  as  follows  :    Washerwomen,  1,312  ;  needlewomen,  326  ; 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  ^>'J3 

mechanical,  89  ;  mercantile,  28  ;  laborers,  821  ;  i)r()lVs.si()nals, 
65  ;  soldiers,  1  ;  none,  195  ;  making  altogether  2,887  families 
who  sono;ht  and  obtained  relief  duriiiir  the  year  1877. 

The  Provident  Association  commenced  operations  in  ISdl. 
That  year  something  over  $;},()(>0  was  expenilcd.  The  largest 
sum  dispensed  in  any  one  ycnv  was  tlie  work  of  ISCC,  wlim  I  lie 
association  expended  for  the  relief  of  the  destitute,  almost 
$40,000.  The  least  sum  expended  in  any  year  since  1M(J4  was 
in  1872,  when  the  amount  was  about  $15,000.  Since  18G1  the 
whole  amount  expended  by  the  Association  is  in  excess  of 
$350,000. 

What  has  been  the  result  of  the  methotl  pursm-d  in  the 
relief  of  the  poor  by  the  Provident  Association  ?  The  answer 
to  this  question  is  important.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  helpful 
character  of  the  assistance  rendered  to  some  of  the  families 
years  ago  enabled  them  to  get  on  in  the  world,  and  the  rigid 
enforcement  of  the  rule  to  require  all  beneficiaries  to  keep  their 
children  at  school,  has  resulted  in  giving  to  the  public  schools 
some  of  the  best  teachers  enarao-ed  in  the  work  of  educatinor 
the  children  of  the  city.  This  is  something.  Then  again, 
some  of  those  who,  ten  years  ago,  were  recipients  of  the  alms 
of  the  Association,  have  become  regular  contributors  to  the 
funds  of  the  Association.  These  incidents  in  the  history  of  the 
work  of  the  institution  show  that  the  distribution  of  alms  may 
be  so  regulated  that  benefits  may  be  reaped  by  the  connnunity 
which  thus  regards  its  poor  and  takes  compassion  on  them  in 
their  distress.  Many  poor  of  to-day  may  be  rich  ten  years 
hence.  There  is  another  important  fact  establishcil,  that  is, 
that  even  in  the  ranks  of  the  most  poverty-stricken  families, 
are  to  be  found  children  who  may  become  the  most  useful  of 
citizens.  Stanley,  the  African  explorer,  came  from  the  pre- 
cincts of  a  Welsh  poor-house.  So  among  the  cliildren  of  the 
destitute  poor  of  this  city,  it  is  possible,  that  a  future  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  may  now  be  in  process  of  develop- 
ment. Who  will  say  that  the  seven  or  eight  public  school 
teachers  who  were  recipients  of  the  bounty  of  the  Provident 
Association  ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  are  not  wortii  as  niurh 
to  the  community  as  all  the  money  contributed  during  atiy 
one  year  to  the  funds  of  the  Association.     It    is  painful    to 


526  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

conjecture  what  might  have  been  the  fate  of  these  and  hun- 
dreds of  others,  had  no  relief  been  offered  and  no  g-enial  in- 
fluence  thrown  around  them  in  the  hour  of  their  deep  distress. 
How  much  might  have  been  expended  in  prosecuting  them  as 
criminals?  The  community,  as  well  as  the  individual,  may 
realize  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. 


THE   FOUR   COURTS. 


SOME  OF  THE  FEATURES  OF  A  NOTABLE  PLACE. 

The  first  and  second  floors  of  the  west  wins:  of  the  Four 
Courts  are  used  by  the  Metropolitan  Police  Department  of 
the  city.  On  the  first  floor  or  basement,  the  armory  for  the 
police  is  located  ;  and  it  is  here  that  those  "  watch-dogs  of  the 
city,"  the  blue-coats,  go  through  the  evolution  of  drill  at 
stated  periods  during  the  week.  The  second  floor  is  divided 
into  twelve  apartments  for  the  actual  daily  service  of  the 
Chief  of  Police,  and  officers  of  the  department  and  newspaper 
reporters.  It  is  often  remarked  by  individuals  not  acquainted 
with  the  workings  of  newspaper  ofiices  "  How  do  the  re- 
porters find  out  all  these  things?"  The  problem  is  easily 
solved  when  the  fact  is  taken  into  consideration,  that  all  police- 
men in  the  city  report  every  incident  to  the  station  in  their 
respective  districts,  which  in  turn  is  reported  to  the  Chief's 
office,  where,  after  due  cognizance  has  been  taken  by  the 
Chief,  it  is  jDut  upon  the  "  hook,"  as  it  is  called,  and  from  this 
the  newspaper  boys  catch  the  news  as  it  flies,  often  making  a 
column  or  two  out  of  a  three-line  police,  item,  by  looking  up 
the  parties  involved  in  it.  In  these  twelve  rooms  on  the 
second  floor  are  situated  the  offices  of  the  Chief,  the  main 
office  of  the  captain  of  the  district  in  which  the  building  is 
located  ;  the  Supply  Department,  wherein  all  new  stores  are 


528  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

placed  and  issued  to  the  various  districts  ;  the  office  of  the 
Board  of  Police  Commissioners  for  meeting  purposes  ;  the 
Detectives'  Departments  and  the  Chief's  room.  These  rooms 
are,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  whole 
building  ;  and  the  reader  would  find  a  visit  here  very  interesting. 

THE    rogues'    gallery. 

The  private  office  of  the  Chief  is  used  for  the  *'  Rogues* 
Gallery."  The  pictures  are  neatly  arranged  and  numljered 
in  fine  swinging-door  cases  set  in  a  circuit  around  the  entire 
room,  and  which  contain  about  1,700  photographs  of  only 
known  professional  criminals,  men  and  youths  of  police  record. 
Accompanying  each  picture  is  a  record  giving  in  detail  a  full 
description  of  each  rogue,  date  of  arrest,  name  of  officer  making 
the  arrest,  and  other  important  memoranda.  These  pictures 
are  taken  bv  a  photographer  under  contract  to  do  the  work, 
who  is  not  allowed  to  part  or  dispose  of  any  picture  without 
orders  from  the  Chief  of  Police. 

burglars'  tools. 

An  agreeable  hour  may  also  be  spent  in  the  Chiefs  De- 
partment in  the  inspection  of  the  handiwork  of  burglars, 
counterfeiters,  forgers  and  gamblers  ;  but  to  those  who  may  not 
possess  the  opportunity  to  make  the  visit,  a  short  account  of 
these  marvellous  offsprings  of  rogue  genius  may  not  be  amiss. 

On  the  walls  of  the  Chief's  office  three  cases  of  these  in- 
struments are  hung,  and  one  is  struck  with  the  large  number 
of  instruments  used,  and  the  casual  observer  would  doubtless 
think  that  the  display  was  some  prize  collection  of  hardware,, 
which  had  strayed  away  from  some  merchant. 

The  largest  case  contains  the  larger  instruments,  such  as 
crow-bars,  wedges  and  chisels.  And  the  smaller,  articles 
bearing  some  resemblance  to  pincers,  keys,  etc.,  occupy  the 
other  two  cases.  The  entire  collection  is  one  of  the  most  j)er- 
fect  ever  gotten  together.  It  comprises  nearly  every  device 
in  iron  and  wood  that  has  ever  been  invented,  for  the  devilish 
uses  of  men  who  would  prefer  to  live  by  their  wits  to  earning 
their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow.    With  these  ingenious 


CHARITABLE    AND    REFORMATORY.  529 

implements  in  the  hands  of  proper  *'  crooks,"  some  of  these 
implements  would  enable  the  aceoniplished  criminals  to  go 
through  a  bank  or  force  an  entrance  into  a  residence  in  a  shoil 
hour  of  undisturbed  liberty.  In  the  larger  case  are  nine  large 
implements  of  the  crow-bar  species,  which  are  used  by  burglars 
to  pry  open  strong  doors.  Some  of  these  crow-bars  arc  articu- 
lated, and  when  disjointed  they  can  be  easily  carried  in  a 
bundle  without  fear  of  detection.  One  of  these  "jimmies" 
is  small  enough  to  be  carried  in  the  vest  lining,  but  is  so  con- 
structed as  to  be  nearly  as  efficient,  in  some  cases,  as  some  of 
the  larger  implements. 

The  most  formidable  tool  displayed  for  forcing  an  entrance 
to  safes  with  combination  locks,  is  comprised  in  a  long  steel 
bar  round  and  narrowing  to  a  point.  The  point  is  inserted  at 
a  right  angle  in  a  square,  steel  hammer-head,  pointed  at  one 
end.  Accompanying  is  a  long  piece  of  thick  gutta  percha, 
placed  on  the  head  of  the  square-shaped  piece  of  steel.  The 
gutta  percha  deadens  the  sound  of  the  blows  on  the  hanmier 
bead,  and  driving  its  point  into  the  lock.  A  few  blows  cause 
the  wheels  of  the  locks  to  drop  down  to  a  position  where  they 
can  be  manipulated  from  the  outside,  and  in  a  comparatively 
short  time  the  apparently  impregnable  door  yields.  Besides 
the  implements  above  described,  there  are  numerous  panel- 
cutters,  by  which  the  burglar  noiselessly  cuts  a  hole  in  the  door 
through  which  he  wishes  to  gain  admission.  Nips,  of  from 
twenty  to  thirty  varieties,  used  by  burglars  and  sncak-thieves 
for  opening  doors  from  the  outside  by  grapi^ling  the  lock  end 
of  the  key,  and  thus  forcing  an  entrance.  The  possession  of 
any  of  these  "  ontsidevs,"  \s  prima  facie  evidence  of  intention 
to  commit  crime,  and  is  punishable  with  a  term  in  the  work- 
house. 

Among  the  collection  are  a  number  of  fine  specimens  of 
saws,  which  for  delicacy  of  construction  are,  indeed,  mechan- 
ical curiosities.  They  are  frequently  intercepted  concealed  in 
the  food  of  prisoners,  with  the  intention  of  giving  the  prisoner 
means  of  egress  from  his  cell.  Locks,  picks,  pincers,  double- 
enders,  and  other  tools,  are  here  in  all  the  forms  that  niechan- 
Ical  genius  could  invent.  One  very  interesting  specimen  of 
ingenuity  is  seen  in  a  pocket  ladder  thirty  feet  long,  which  is 

34 


530  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

SO  arranged  as  to  readily  support,  when  adjusted  for  work,  a 
man  of  two  hundred  pounds  weight. 

S03IE    INTERESTING    TROPHIES. 

There  is  considerable  interest  atttU3hing  to  the  history  of 
these  instruments,  but  space  will  not  allow  us  to  give  a 
detailed  account  of  how  these  implements  were  captured,  nor 
the  record  of  the  criminals  who  once  plied  them  in  their  nefa- 
rious work.  One  of  the  "jimmies"  was  taken  from  George 
Dubois  alias  John  George,  or  rather  it  was  found  in  his  room, 
and  is  said  to  have  been  the  same  that  was  used  in  burglarizing 
Spiro's  pawn  shop,  then  situated  on  the  south  side  of  Pine 
Street,  between  Third  and  Fourth  streets,  several  years  ago, 
when  a  large  amount  of  jewelry  and  diamonds  were  stolen, 
entrance  being  effected  from  the  Pearl  saloon,  situated  next 
door.  Another  jimmy  belonged  to  Tony  Craig,  a  notorious 
burglar,  and  was  thrown  away  in  an  attempt  to  get  away  from 
two  detectives.  A  third  belonged  to  Boyle  and  Henderson, 
two  convicts,  who  escaped  from  Sing  Sing,  by  seizing  a  loco- 
motive in  the  quarry  where  they  were  at  work.  When  cap- 
tured not  long  after  the  event,  they  had  fixed  the  jimmy  in 
the  lumber  yard  next  to  Lucas  Market  Savings  Bank,  and 
were  about  to  go  to  work  on  that  institution,  when  they  were 
seized  by  detectives,  who  were  lying  in  wait  for  them.  They 
were  returned  to  Sing  Sing,  but  have  escaped  a  second  time. 

THE    QUEER    laO'LEMENTS    OF    GAMBLING    CROOKS. 

There  is  also  in  the  office  of  the  Chief  of  Police  a  large  col- 
lection of  gambling  implements,  captured  at  various  times  in 
the  raids  on  the  gambling  rooms  so  plentifully  distributed 
throughout  the  city.  These  trophies  are  arranged  on  a  sample 
board,  and  to  the  uninitiated,  present  an  interesting  subject, 
when  their  devices  are  explained,  and,  in  fact,  some  of  the  tools 
on  the  sample  board,  chiefly  those  used  for  crooked  work,  are 
new'  even  to  the  fraternity.  There  is  honor  even  among 
thieves,  and  while  it  would  be  unjust  to  liken  all  gamblers  to 
that  class  of  rogues,  yet  that  a  percentage  of  those  who  woo 
the  fickle  goddess  are  up  to  all  sorts  of  tricks,  will  be  admitted 


CHARITAHLE    AND    KEFOKMATOKY.  531 

both  inside  and  outside  of  the  profession.  The  sample  l)o:ird 
in  question  bears  the  statement  out.  At  the  top  of  tlie  hoard 
are  three  varieties  of  kcno  urns,  or  bowls,  one  very  handsome, 
and  could  not  have  cost  less  than  one  hundred  dollars.  A 
peg  board  in  the  Chief  's  cabinet  assists  in  giving  an  iidvling 
of  how  the  game  is  played.  Cards  lie  around  the  tables  in 
the  room,  having  three  rows  of  immhers  with  live  different 
numbers  in  each  row.  Each  card  bears  a  lar£rc  numl)er, 
stamped  in  red  ink.  As  they  are  purchased  by  the  players 
the  consecutive  number  is  called  out  by  the  assistant,  while 
the  fact  that  the  card  is  purchased  and  is  about  to  be  i)layed 
is  noted  by  the  man  at  the  peg-board.  This  board  contains,  in 
rows,  numbers  corresponding  to  the  consecutive  number  erf 
cards.  Below  each  number  is  a  black-walnut  peg  with  a 
button  behind  it,  working  in  a  round  hole.  The  fact  that  a 
certain  card  is  about  to  be  played  is  marked  by  the  dealer 
by  inserting  a  peg  in  the  hole,  which  is  marked  by  a  number 
corresponding  to  the  consecutive  number  of  the  card.  When 
all  the  cards  have  been  thus  pe2:<2:ed,  the  j^amc  beofins.  The 
man  at  the  urn  shakes  it  up,  a  ball  drops  out  marked  with  a 
number,  Avhich  is  called  out.  The  player,  if  he  finds  that  he 
has  on  the  card  before  him,  among  the  rows  of  figures  referred 
to,  the  number  called  out  by  the  man  at  the  urn,  puts  a  button 
on  it,  and  when  he  has  five  buttons  in  a  row,  he  calls  out 
keno,  and  the  winner  carries  oft'  the  "pot,"  as  it  is  called, 
minus  the  fifteen  percent,  retained  for  the  profits  and  expenses 
of  the  house.  There  are  ten  varieties  of  faro  boxes  to  be 
seen  in  the  Chief's  ofliice,  varying  in  material  from  silver, 
silver-plated  and  ebony,  down  to  block  tin,  brass  and 
bay  wood. 

The  item  of  chief  interest  in  this  hiy-out  is  in  the  fact 
that  some  of  these  boxes  show  that  the  game  can  be  dealt 
crookedly  by  certain  ways  of  constructing  the  boxes.  These 
are  called  "  ho"- "  boxes,  and  are  so  made  as  to  allow  the 
dealer  to  draw  from  the  box  two  cards  at  the  same  time  instead 
of  one,  as  prescribed  in  the  rules  of  the  legitimate  game.  De- 
votees of  poker  would  be  astonished  to  find  their  favorite  game 
tampered  with  by  mechanical  appliances.  A  couple  of  con- 
trivances captured  not  long  since,  and  now  with  the  display 


532  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

of  gamblers'  tools  at  the  Chief's  office,  proves,  however,  that 
the  old  maxim,  "tricks  in  all  trades,"  holds  good  in  this 
instance  as  well  as  in  others.  Both  of  these  inventions  are 
intended  to  supply  the  possessor  with  winning  cards.  One  is 
called  a  poker  pad,  invented  in  Buffalo  in  1866.  Two  piecea 
of  steel  are  bound  together  to  hold  the  needed  card,  the 
latter  being  shoved  up  within  reach  by  means  of  a  spring. 
The  latter  is  worked  by  means  of  a  wire  rope,  which,  extend- 
mg  down  the  player's  leg  inside  of  his  pants,  is  fastened 
below  the  knee.  So  that  by  movement  of  the  leg  the  spring 
throws  the  card  into  the  player's  reach,  which  he  holds  in  his 
hand  before  him  so  as  to  conceal  the  movement,  his  hand 
inside  his  vest.  There  are  also  displayed  on  the  walls  a 
roulette  cloth,  another  cloth  for  the  Mexican  and  Texan  game 
of  mustang,  and  a  bunko  lay-out. 

THE    CRIMINAL    COURTS. 

On  the  third  floor  of  the  Four  Courts  are  situated  the  Court 
of  Criminal  Correction  and  the  Criminal  Court,  together  with 
the  private  offices  of  the  judges  and  clerks  of  the  two  courts. 
These  court-rooms  are  large  and  well  ventilated,  ha\dng  been 
constructed  with  a  view  of  combining  the  conveniences  of  the 
best  court-rooms  in  the  United  States  in  their  construction. 
The  Court  of  Criminal  Correction  has  jurisdiction  over  misde- 
meanors and  cases  where  the  offense  charged  is  not  punishable 
with  penitentiar}',  and  the  judge  of  this  court  sits  in  prelimi- 
nary examinations  of  felony  cases.  The  Criminal  Court  has 
jurisdiction  over  cases  where  felony  is  alleged. 

THE    FOUR    COURTS    POLICE    COURT. 

On  tne  same  floor  with  the  Police  Department,  in  the  east 
end  of  the  building,  is  located  the  Police  Court,  where  is  daily 
brought  forth  those  offenders  who  have  been  guilty  of  minor 
offenses  and  brought  thither  from  various  police  stations.  The 
slums  and  sloughs  of  this  great  city  are  well  represented  within 
the  docks  of  the  Police  Court  every  morning,  and  the  scenes 
that  take  place  here  alternate  between  the  sad  and  the  ludi- 
crous, the  melancholy  and  the  humorous. 


CHARITABLE    AND    llEFORMATORY.  533 

Sometimes  there  arc  us  many  as  sixty  cases  to  l)c  disposed 
of,  and  the  day  after  St.  Patrick's  celebration  there  have  been 
as  many  more,  principally  "drunks"  of  Erin's  sons  who  hud 
been  too  exuberant  in  keei)in<^  green  Ireland's  greatest  day. 
The  judge  usually  hurries  through  these  cases,  as  indeed  lie 
must,  in  order  to  keep  up  with  each  day's  business.  Some  of 
the  prisoners  are  let  off'  with  the  gentle  admonition  not  to  do 
so  any  more  ;  others  are  fined,  and  those  not  able  to  pay  their 
fines  are  sent  to  the  city  work-house,  some  six  miles  below  the 
city,  where  they  work  out  their  fines  at  hard  labor.  This  latter 
sentence  serves  a  double  purpose — tending  to  correct  the 
offender  and  furnishing  the  city  with  macadam  to  a  lar'^-e  ex- 
tent. 

THE    JAIL. 

The  Jail,  which  is  in  the  immediate  rear  of  the  courts  build- 
ing, has  a  capacity  of  three  hundred,  and  averages  from  one 
hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  "boarders."  The 
entrance  is  through  the  rotunda  of  the  courts  building  and  is 
carefully  guarded  without  and  within.  The  jail  structure  is 
built  in  circular  form,  the  cells  being  arranged  contiguously 
around  next  the  walls  on  the  east,  west  and  south  side  of  the 
building,  thus  forming  a  large  court  which  affords  the  prisoners 
ample  room  for  promenading  and  exercise.  In  the  jail  yard 
stands  the  grim  gibbet  from  which  five  prisoners  have  swung 
into  eternity,  and  its  ghastly  appearance  and  tragic  associa- 
tions are  a  standing  warning  of  no  little  moment  to  every  one 
who  catches  a  glimpse  of  it  from  his  cell  window. 

All  executions  are  performed  by  the  City  Marshal,  and 
within  the  jail  yard.  On  these  momentous  occasions  invita- 
tions are  issued,  the  paper  used  being  margined  with  black,  to 
those  to  whom  the  Marshal  sees  fit  to  extend  the  hospitalities 
of  the  jail  yard,  not  to  exceed  two  hundred. 

There  are  now  seven  murderers  in  the  St.  Louis  Jail  charged 
with  murder  in  the  first  degree. 

THE    MORGUE. 

In  the  southwest  corner  of  the  jail  yard  is  situated  a  neat 
one-story  brick  building.  This  is  the  City  Morgue,  or  dead- 
house.     It  was  instituted  in  order  to  meet  a  demand  for  some 


534  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

stated  place  where  the  unknown  dead  might  be  brought  for 
identification  by  friends  and  relatives.  It  contains  four  mar- 
ble slabs,  and  consequently  has  a  capacity  for  four  bodies  at 
the  same  time.  For  some  time  after  its  erection  the  Mors^ue 
was  left  open  to  the  public,  but  the  crowds  of  morbid  curiosity- 
seekers  which  flocked  there  made  it  an  intolerable  nuisance  to 
those  living  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  doors  were  finally 
closed.  No  one  is  now  permitted  to  enter  the  Morgue  except 
by  a  written  permit  from  the  Coroner.  Many  are  the  sad 
scenes  that  take  place  in  this  house,  whose  very  name  is  sugges- 
tive of  its  character. 

Mothers  whose  sons  have  failed  to  return  home  at  the  accus- 
tomed time,  after  failing  to  trace  their  offspring,  hie  hither  as 
a  last  resort,  looking  for  that  which  they  do  not  wij^h  to  find  ; 
sisters  recos-nizin";  in  the  blackened  face  of  the  floater  the  feat- 
ures  of  a  brother ;  or  the  wanton  "women  of  the  town"  taking 
a  last  look  at  their  companion  in  sin — all  present  a  picture 
which  shows  in  dark  colors  some  of  the  sorrows  that  are  scat- 
tered throughout  this  great  city.  After  the  body  has  lain  in 
the  Morgne,  where  it  is  kept  in  a  state  of  preservation  with 
chemicals,  for  the  spaCe  of  three  or  four  days,  it  is,  if  un- 
claimed, removed  to  the  potters'  field  to  take  up  its  last  rest- 
ing-place with  the  poor  and  the  unknown. 

How  many*  have  been  borne  to  that  gloomy  house  of  the 
dead  who  began  life  with  lofty  aspirations  and  noble  purposes, 
and  yet  the  shadows  of  despair  gathered  about  them,  and  the 
road  before  them  grew  rugged,  and  then,  at  last,  in  intolerable 
agony,  they  sought  relief  in  the  dreamless  sleep  of  death. 

Sometimes  it  is  the  o-hastlv  form  of  a  woman  that  is  borne 

to  the  gloomy  mansion — a  woman,  once  perhaps  the  pride  of 

a  happy  home,  once   fair  and    beautiful    and  joyous.     But  a 

blight  fell  upon  her ;  she  went  the  way  that  leads  to  shame, 

despair  and  death.     Some  one,  perhaps,  comes  to  the  Morgue 

to  seek  for  the  once  loved  being,  only  to  find — 

"  Alas!   she's  cold; 
Life  and  those  lips  have  long  been  separated ; 
Death  lies  on  her  like  an  untimely  frost 
Upon  the  fairest  flower  of  all  the  field." 

Time,  for  her,  had  reached  its  terminal  point.  Like  hun- 
dreds, nay,  thousands  of  others,  the  period  of  existence  had 


CHARITABLE    AND    KKFOKMATOllY.  .O.J^ 

been  reached  ;  the  end  of  the  world  had  come,  and  she  had  cast 
aside  the  cares,  the  sorrows,  the  hittcrhess,  the  shame  and 
woes,  which  had  burdened  her  soul,  and  boldly  soughttlie  pres- 
ence of  the  Eternal.  Who  shall  say  that  in  the  last  agonies  of 
despah',  the  pleas  of  the  sinful  being  may  not  be  wafted  to  the 
All-Pitying  One,  and  merit  a  pardon  and  compassion.  Let  us 
not  be  hasty  to  condemn  the  stranger  girl  lying  there  on  that 
marble  slab.  Perhaps  death  brought  sweet  relief.  To-day, 
to-morrow,  every  day,  to  thousands  the  end  of  the  workl  is 
close  at  hand.  We  walk  here,  as  it  were,  in  the  crypts  of  life  ; 
at  times  from  the  great  cathedral  above  us  we  can  hear  the 
organ  and  the  chanting  of  the  choir;  Ave  see  the  light  stream 
through  the  open  door  ;  and  as  the  burdens  become  greater, 
and  the  agony  more  intense,  the  celestial  melody  falls  sweetly 
upon  the  ear  of  the  tortured,  and  with  joy  they  undertake  to 
mount  the  narrow  staircase  of  the  grave,  that  leads  them  out 
of  the  uncertain  twilight,  the  Avide  desolation  around  them. 
With  hope  they  undertake  to  reach  the  serene  mansions  of  the 
life  eternal.  Their  life  tragedy  reaches  the  tinal  act  in  the 
mighty  river's  ever-flowing  tide,  and  the  curtain  descends  on  a 
mournful  scene  at  last  in  the  Morgue,  and  the  lifeless  form  is 
borne  away,  and  in  an  unmarked  grave  oblivion  conceals  their 
dust  forever.     This  is  the  Morgue — the  house  of  the  dead  1 


THE   PRESS. 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  PERIODICALS. 

There  is  nothing  that  indicates  the  substantial  character  of 
a  city  more  truly  than  the  newspapers  which  start  and  grow  up 
with  it.  They  are  both  the  business  and  intellectual  ther- 
mometers which  indicate  the  degree  of  individual  and  general 
prosperity.  We  may  rightfully  feel  a  little  proud  of  our  posi- 
tion in  this  respect. 

St.  Louis  is  not  behind  any  of  her  Western  sisters  in  the 
number  and  literary  excellencies  of  her  journals  and  period- 
icals. These  publications  reflect  the  sentiments,  opinions, 
culture  and  tastes  of  our  people  ;  and,  judging  by  these,  we 
need  not  fear  a  rigid  comparison  between  the  morality  and 
educational  advancement  achieved,  and  the  degree  of  progress 
made,  by  the  inhabitants  of  any  other  American  city.  The 
daily  press  incrudes  four  morning  and  two  afternoon  journals 
printed  in  the  English  language,  and  four  morning  newspapers 
printed  in  the  German  language. 

The  weekly  periodicals,  including  the  religious  journals, 
number  twenty-three  separate  publications.  There  are  news- 
papers printed  in  French,  German,  Spanish  and  Bohemian. 
The  colored  people  publish  an  organ  devoted  especially  to 
their  interests. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal,  the  M.  E.  Church  South,  the 
Episcopal  Church,  the  Christian,  Presbyterian,  Roman 
Catholic,  and  Baptist  denominations,  are  each  represented  by 
ably  conducted  weekly  journals.  The  Roman  Catholics  have 
three  weekly  journals  devoted  to  their  interests,  one  in  Eng- 
lish, one  in  German,  and  one  in  Czech.  The  Baptists  have 
two  weekly  papers,  both  published  in  English.  The  Radicals 
or  Infidels,  publish  one  weekly  devoted  to  the  propagation  of 
infidelity. 

[536] . 


I 


THE    I'RESS. 

THE  MISSOURI  REPUBLIC.VN. 


537 


This  journal  is  entitled  to  a  first  mention,  because  the 
period  of  its  existence  embraces  all  that  is  essential  in  the 
growth  of  our  city,  and  most  that  is  interestiiii,^  in  the  history 
of  the  whole  West,  for  the  Republican  has  clironiclod  the 
events  of  the  times  since  St.  Louis  was  an  insignidcant  viUagc 
of  log  and  frame  houses,  containing  a  population  of  litth' 
more  than  one  thousand  inhabitants.  Witliin  th(^  poncU'rous 
tomes  of  files  preserved  in  the  vaults  of  that  otlico  since  the 
issue  of  the  first  number  of  the  Missouri  Gazelle,  in  July, 
1808,  until  the  present  time,  is  preserved  the  history  of  St. 
Louis  and  of  the  West,   since  very  nearly  the  date  of  the 


REPUBLICAN'  BUILDING,  1S22. 

occupation  of  the  Territory  of  Upper  Louisiana  by  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  LTnited  States. 

At  the  date  of  the  commencement  of  the  publication,  St. 
Louis  was  in  Louisiana,  that  is  to  say,  the  territory  now 
embraced  within  the  limits  of  the  State  of  Missouri  constituted 
a  county  in  the  Territory  of  Louisiana.  The  name  of  the 
paper  was  changed  in  1809  to  Louisiana  Gazelle.  In  IS  18 
the  name  was  changed  back  to  Missouri  Gazelle,  In  1821 
the  name  of  the  paper  was  changed  to  Missouri  Tiepuhlicau 
by  its  then  proprietor,  James  C.  Cummins,  >vho  had  purchased 
it  m  1820  from  its  founder,  Joseph  Charless.  In  1S22  Mr. 
Cummins  transferred  the  paper  to  Edward  Charlcss,  a  son  of 


538  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

the  Charless  who  had  established  the  paper,  who  continued  it 
under  the  same  name. 

The  first  printer  to  work  in  the  West  was  a  Mr.  Hinkle, 
who  set  up  the  first  form  of  the  Gazette  in  a  little  one-story 
building  on  Mahi  Street,  near  the  corner  of  the  old  market. 
Of  course,  in  those  days  there  were  no  power-presses,  and 
they  had  not  yet  learned  to  make  composition  rollers,  tho 
inking  of  the  forms,  as  well  as  operating  the  press,  was  a  task 
to  be  performed  by  hand.  The  old  Ramage  press,  from  which 
copies  of  the  first  newspaper  published  in  St.  Louis  were  taken, 
was  a  very  rude  contrivance,  and  yet  it  was  equal  to  the  best 
presses  of  that  age.  This  first  rude  hand-press  served  to 
supply  the  St.  Louis  public  with  their  newspaper  until  1827. 
It  required  forty  days  in  those  days  for  an  item  of  news  to 
travel  from  Washington  to  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi. 

In  1822  the  Republican  had,  by  two  enlargements,  attained 
the  size  of  twenty  by  twenty-six  inches.  Josiah  Spalding  was 
taken  in  as  a  partner  in  that  year,  the  style  of  the  firm  being- 
Edward  Charless  &,  Co.,  under  which  style  the  copartnership 
lasted  until  February,  182G,  when  Edward  Charless  again 
became  sole  proprietor.  In  March,  1828,  Nathaniel  Paschall 
became  associated  with  ]\Ir.  Charless,  and  the  firm  was  estab- 
lished as  Charless  &  Paschall.  At  this  time  the  jjaper  was 
increased  in  size,  its  dimensions  being  twenty-two  by  thirty- 
two  inches.  No  essential  change  was  made  until  April,  1833, 
when  it  was  published  semi-weekly  and  weekly,  and  two  years 
later  a  tri-weekly  issue  was  ventured  upon.  In  Maj^  1835, 
the  sheet  was  enlarged,  measuring  then  twenty-four  by  thirty- 
four  inches  ;  and  on  September  30,  1836,  St.  Louis  witnessed 
an  event,  for  it  was  on  that  day  that  the  Republican  first 
appeared  as  a  daily  paper.  It  was  also  published  tri-weekly 
and  weekly.  The  last  few  preceding  years  had  been  attended 
with  a  vast  increase  in  population,  demanding  a  corresponding 
expansion  of  facilities  for  furnishing  news  to  a  greatly  increased 
list  of  subscribers. 

In  July,  1837,  Charless  &  Paschall  sold  the  concern  to  A. 
B.  Chambers,  Oliver  Harris,  and  George  Knajjp.  In  August, 
1839,  Mr.  Harris  withdrew,  and  the  paper  continued  under 
the  firm  of  Chambers  &  Knapp.     On  the  1st  of  January,  1840, 


THE    PRESS. 


5  ay 


the  sheet  was  enlarged  to  twenty-six  by  thii-ty-cight.  iiiehcs, 
and  Joseph  "W.  Dougherty  beeanie  a  ])ro[)ric'l()r,  the  styU;  of 
the  firm  now  being  Chambers,  Kiiapp  cSc  Co.  Mr.  Doiiirherly 
was  conneeted  Avith  the  paper  but  a  short  time,  and  on  liis 
retirement  the  tirm  resumed  the  title  of  Chambers  &  Knapp. 
November  20,  1843,  the  Republican  enlarged  its  dimensions  to 
twenty-seven  by  forty-six  inches,  and  on  the  1st  of  .January 
following,  increased  to  twenty-eight  by  forty-eight  inches. 

In  May,  1849,  the  office  and  lixturcs  of  tht;  Jlcpuhllcan 
office  were  destroyed  in  the  great  conflagration  of  tliatyear. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1851,  the  paper  was  es(al)lished 
in  the  five-story  building  on  Chestnut  Street  then  just  com- 
pleted, which  was  regarded  at  the  time  as  one  of  the 
finest  newspaper 
establishments  in 
the  country.  The 
paper  was  en- 
laro:ed  to  a  sheet 
measuring  thirty- 
one  and  a  half  by 
fifty  -  two  inches . 
In  October,  1853, 
the  paper  was  fur- 
ther enlarged  to 
the  immense  size 
of  thirty-three  by 
fifty -six  inches. 
The  quarto  form 
was  adopted  Octo- 
ber 8,  18,72. 

Mr.  A. B.Cham- 
bers, so  long  one  of  the  proi)rietors  of  the  Republican,  died 
May  22, 1854..  Oneyearfrom  that  time— May  1!),  1855,  (Joorgo 
Knapp,  by  the  purchase  of  the  Chambers  interest,  Ix'camc  sole 
owner  of  the  establishment.  During  August  in  that  year,  Na- 
thaniel Paschall  and  John  Knapp  were  admitted  as  i)artners, 
and  the  firm  name  changed  to  (ieorge  Knapp  tSc  Co.  In  18(;(;, 
Mr.  Paschall  died,  and  Mr.  William  Ilydc,  who  had  Joined  ihe 
staff  as  a  reporter  in  1857,  was  promoted  to  the  chief  editorshii) 


540 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


of  the  paper,  having  previous  to  that  time  been  admitted  to  an 
interest  in  the  proprietorship.  Before  the  death  of  Mr.  Paschall, 
the  firm  of  George  Knapp  &  Co.  had  been  changed  into  a  joint 
stock  company,  and  the  elder  Paschall  was  succeeded  in  the 
directory  of  the  company  by  his  son  Henry  G.  Paschall,  who 
still  retains  that  position. 

On  the  evening  of  May  24,   1870,  the  JRepublican  office, 
situated  on  Chestnut  Street,  between  Main  and  Second,  was 


REPUBLICAN  BUILDING,  liTi. 

burned  down.  It  was  a  five-story  brick  building,  with  base- 
ment for  machinery.  The  destruction  was  nearly  total,  in- 
cluding an  eight-cylinder  Hoe  press,  job  office,  bindery,  type, 
fixtures,  etc.,  involving  a  loss  of  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  dollars,  on  which  there  was  one  hundred  and  six 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars  insurance.  All  the  files  of  the 
paper  from  1808  down  were  saved.  Among  the  property 
destroyed  was  a  valuable  library  of  books  of  reference.  A 
four-cylinder  Hoe  press  was  protected  in  a  fire-proof  vault, 


THE    PRESS.  541 

and  saved,  and  but  one  day's  issue  of  the  paper  was  missed. 
A  temporary  two-story  brick  building  was  erected  on  the  old 
site,  and  on  the  18th  of  June  the  office  was  moved  into  it, 
where  it  remained  until  the  present  Republican  buildinjj^  was 
erected  and  ready  for  occupation. 

On  Wednesday,  January  8,  1873,  the  Mlsaouri  Republican 
had  a  grand  opening  and  house-warming  in  its  new  building. 
The  newspaper  had  taken  possession  of  its  new  qnarters  some 
time  before,  and  the  great  presses  and  the  composition  and 
editorial  departments  were  in  perfect  running  (uder.  The 
proprietors  of  the  Republican  extended  invitations  to  all  their 
personal  acquaintances  and  friends  of  the  paper  to  join  with 
them  in  celebrating  their  new  epoch.  A  large  concourse  of 
old  and  leading  citizens  responded,  and  the  spacious  i-oonis  and 
halls  of  the  building  were  filled  from  top  to  basement.  After 
the  usual  introductory  festivities  were  over,  there  was  a  rare 
festival  of  speeches  and  congratulations.  The  time  chosen 
was  the  forty-sixth  anniversary  of  the  connection  of  the  senior 
proprietor,  George  Knapp,  with  the  establishment. 

The  new  Republican  office  stands  on  a  lot  eighty  feet  on 
Third  Street,  extending  back  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  on  Chest- 
nut Street.  The  work  was  commenced  September  1,  1870,  and 
the  entire  lot  was  excavated  to  the  depth  of  twenty  feet.  The 
foundations  were  sunk  still  deeper.  The  building  has  a  front 
on  Third  Street  of  seventy-six  Ix^et  ten  inches,  and  a  front  on 
Chestnut  Street  of  one  hundred  and  three  feet  five  inches.  It 
is  five  stories  high  above  the  pavement,  the  distance  from  the 
sidewalk  to  the  crest  of  the  dome  being  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  feet.  The  style  of  architecture  is  that  of  the 
Renaissance,  which  combines  strength,  durability  and  beauty. 


THE  GLOBE-DEMOCRAT. 

It  was  about  the  year  1831-32  that  a  ^Mr.  Steele  com- 
menced the  publication  of  a  paper  styled  The  WorJcinffmari  s 
Advocate.  This  paper  was  subsequently  transferred  to  Messrs. 
Bowlin  8c  Mayfield  and  the  name   changed  to   The    Western 


542  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

Argus.  In  succeeding  years  the  A7'gus  passed  under  the  con- 
trol of  Mansfield,  Lawhead,  Corbin,  Watson  &  Davis,  and  finally 
became  the  property  of  Col.  Gilpin,  who  eventually  sold  the 
paper  to  Shadrach  Penn,  who  changed  the  name  to  The  Mis- 
souri Reporter.  This  paper  was  continued  under  the  editorial 
management  of  Penn  &  Treat,  until  the  death  of  the  former 
in  18 — ,  when  the  paper  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Pickering,  who 
changed  the  name  to  St.  Louis  Union.  After  some  mutations, 
the  property  was  sold  to  Mr.  R.  Phillips,  who  managed  the  paper 
with  varying  fortunes  for  a  time,  when  he  disposed  of  his  in- 
terest to  Mr.  William  McKee,  and  his  associates,  a  combination 
of  practical  printers,  who  had  a  little  while  before  established  a 
small  paper  called  the  /Signal. 

The  possession  of  the  Union  lead  the  publishers  of  the 
Signal  to  change  the  name  of  the  paper  to  The  Missouri 
Democrat,  in  the  year  1852. 

Thus  was  laid  the  foundation  of  one  of  the  leading  news- 
papers of  the  American  Union. 

The  Democrat,  during  the  first  years  of  its  existence,  gave 
an  able  and  brilliant  support  to  Senator  Benton,  who  was  about 
that  time  a  candidate  for  Congress.  During  the  Presidential 
campaign  of  185G,  the  Democrat  supported  the  candidacy  of 
James  Buchanan,  Hon.  Francis  P.  Blair  was  one  of  the  most 
active  promoters  of  the  interests  of  the  Democrat  during  more 
than  ten  years  after  it  was  commenced.  After  the  election  of 
Mr.  Buchanan,  the  Democrat,  which  had  before  exhibited 
evidence  of  Free-soil  proclivities,  gradually  became  more 
staunchly  favorable  to  the  doctrine,  and  when  the  Republican 
party  was  fully  organized  for  the  campaign  of  18G0,  this  journal 
was  fully  committed  to  the  support  of  the  principles  of  that 
party. 

The  Democrat  supported  the  candidacy  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  his  election  secured  a  victory  to  the  Repu])lican  party  and 
precipitated  the  war.  There  was  no  hesitation  on  the  part  of 
Mr.  McKee  and  his  associates.  They  espoused  the  Union 
cause  and  were  bold  in  defense  of  the  Government.  On  sev- 
eral occasions  the  office  was  threatened  with  violence.  Guards 
of  soldiers  protected  the  property. 

It  was  about  the  year  1857  that  Hon.   B.   Gratz  Brown 


TllK    I'KESS. 


54  ;^ 


purchased  an  interest  in  the  Democrat  and  bocame  editorial  I  j 
connected  with  it.  8ubf^e(juontly,  however,  he  transferred  \\\a 
interest  to  Mr.  George  W.  Fishback,  wiio  had  also  purchased 
an  interest  about  the  same  time,  in  ISaT. 

In  1863,  Hon.  F.  P.  Bhiir,  who  had  been  connected  witii 
the  paper  for  a  period  of  eleven  years,  retired.  His  one-sixth 
interest  was  transferred  to  Mr.  Daniel  M.  Houser.  Hon,  B. 
Gratz  Brown  retired  in  the  same  year,  and  a  new  firm  was  or- 
ganized under  the  name  of  McKee,  Fishback  &  Co.,  which 
continued  the  business  and  built  up  a  great  journal.  In  1872, 
Mr.  Fishliack  be- 
coming dissatisfied 
with  the  manao-e- 
ment  of  the  journal, 
made  a  proposition 
to  buy  the  interests 
<)f  his  associates  or 
■sell  to  them  his 
shares.  The  settle- 
ment of  the  differ- 
.ences  was  finally 
left  to  the  courts, 
and  the  establish- 
ment was  sold,  the 
bidding  being  re- 
stricted to  the  origi- 
nal owners.  Mr. 
Fishback  became 
the  purchaser  for 
the  sum  of  four  hundred  and  fifty-six  thousand  one  hundred 
dollars.  A  new  company  was  organized,  ]\Ir.  Fishback  retain- 
ing the  controlling  interest.  Associated  with  him  were  Messrs. 
W.  P.  Fishback,  Otto  H.  Hassclman,  R.  Holmes  and  Joseph  B. 
McCullagh,  the  last-named  becoming  the  chief  editor  of  the 
Democrat. 

During  the  fall  of  the  year  1872,  Messrs.  McKee  &  Houser 
commenced  the  publication  of  a  first-class  jonrnal,  under  the 
style  of  the  St.  Louis  Giohe.  During  the  autniiin  of  IS?."),  Mr. 
Joseph    B.    McCullagh    transferred    liis    services    to  the   new 


JOSEPH  B.  MCCULLAGH. 


544 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


enterprise,  and  the  Globe  at  once  assumed  rank  among  the  best 
journals  of  the  countrj^  During  these  years  a  bitter  warfare 
was  waged  between  the  rival  papers — the  Democrat  and  the 
Globe.  This  strife  was  terminated  in  1875  by  the  purchase  of 
the  Democrat  by  Messrs.  McKee  &,  Houser,  proprietors  of  the 

Globe.  The  price  paid  was 
three  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars.  The 
two  papers  were 'consoli- 
dated under  the  title  of 
Globe-Democrat.  Messrs. 
McKee  &  Ilouser  are  pro- 
prietors, and  Mr.  Joseph 
B.  McCullagh  continues  in 
the  editorial  chair. 

The  success  of  the  Globe- 
Democrat  has  been  quite 
remarkal)lc.  It  is  no  dis- 
paragement to  the  other 
excellent  journals  of  which 
St.  Louis"  can  boast,  to  say  that  this  success  attends  merits 
which  few  journals  in  the  land  possess.  Unquestionably 
the  Globe- Democrat  is  conducted  with  great  ability,  a  fact 
which  the  public  is  not  slow  to  recognize. 


THE  ST.  LOUIS  TIMES. 


In  the  beginning  of  July,  1866,  it  was  announced  that  the 
St.  Louis  Daily  Times,  "an  uncompromising  Democratic 
newspaper,"  would  be  published  during  that  month  in  this 
city.  A  few  weeks  later  the  first  number  of  the  jjaper  appeared. 
It  was  originated  by  D.  A.  Mahony,  Stilson  Hutchins  and 
John  Hodnett,  all  formerly  residing  in  Dubuque,  Iowa.  Mr. 
Mahony  was  the  first  chief  editor  of  the  Times,  and  Stilson 
Hutchins  was   at  first  both  a  writer  and  business  manager. 


THE    PRESS. 


545 


Mr.  Hodnett  was  associated  in  the  proprietorsliip,  and  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  success  of  the  undertaking  by  his  busi- 
ness tact  and  energy. 

During  the  first  years  of  the  existence  of  the  7V///r.s-,  Mr. 
Mahony  labored  assiduout^ly  and  Avith  no  little  abiUty  to 
secure  for  that  journal  a  recognized  standing  among  the  great 
nevrspapers  of  the  West.  Mr.  Ilutchins  early  evinced  a 
marked  predilection  for  politics,  and  brought  to  bear  no  small 
amount  of  energy  and  ability  in  advancing  his  personal  inter- 
ests. It  is  no  light  task  to  establish  a  ne\vs[)aper  in  a  city 
where  long  established  and  able  journals  already  acceptably 
occupy  the  field.  But  the  ability  of  its  first  editor,  the  energy 
and  tact  of  its  "outside  busi-  .rT...--_ 

ness  man,"  John  Hodnett, 
and  the  audacity  and  daring 
of  its  political  engineer, 
united  in  giving  the  Times  a 
creditable  standing  among 
the  newspapers  of  the  city. 
Mr.  Mahony  differed  with 
Mr.  Hutchins  in  regard  to 
his  business  methods,  and 
left  the  paper.  For  a  time 
Hutchins  and  Hodnett,  the 
former  being  chief  editor, 
conducted  the  paper  with  indifferent  success,  until  Major 
Henry  Ewing,  a  gentleman  of  polished  manners  and  great 
ability  as  a  writer  and  business  man,  purchased  a  large  interest 
in  the  establishment  and  became  associated  in  the  editorial 
conduct  of  the  journal.  The  prosperity  of  the  Times  was 
greatly  advanced  by  the  accession  of  INIajor  Ewing. 

In  1872  Major  Ewing  became  dissatisfied  with  the  course 
pursued  by  Mr.  Hutchins,  and  purchased  his  interest  in 
the  paper  for  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 
Hutchins  retired.  The  Times  made  rapid  advanccMient  after 
this  event  for  a  considerable  period,  when  the  death  of  Major 
Ewing  necessitated  a  disposal  of  his  controlling  interest. 

A  company  of  gentlemen,  including  Mr.  Charles  A.  Mantz, 
Major  George  B.  Clark,  Estell  McHenry,  and  others,  became 


546  TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 

purchasers  of  the  Ewing  interest,  and  the  paper  was  published 
by  the  St.  Louis  Times  Comiiany,  of  which  Charles  A.  Mantz 
was  the  President.  Its  success  was  not  marked  under  this 
management.  In  1875  Mr.  Hutchins  succeeded  in  inspiring 
the  managers  of  the  Times  with  a  sublime  faith  in  his  capacity 
as  a  business  man  and  journalist,  and  became  again  interested 
in  the  property.  But  the  difficulties  under  which  the  company 
labored  were  not  removed,  and  in  1876  the  paper  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Major  Celsus  Price,  as  receiver,  at  the  instance 
of  the  creditors,  and  after  due  notice,  was  sold,  John  T.  Crisp, 
acting  for  Hutchins,  becoming  the  purchaser,  and  once  more 
he  became  the  controlling  manager.  The  success  of  the 
paper,  however,  was  not  secured  by  the  success  of  its  editor. 
The  "  hard  times  "  was  made  responsible  for  the  lack  of  sup- 
port accorded  "the  organ"  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
Missouri. 

It  is  needless  to  trace  th^  history  of  the  paper  for  the  next 
year  succeeding  its  purchase  by  the  Times  Company,  of  which 
John  T.  Crisp  was  President  and  Stilson  Hutchins  principal 
mana<2:er.  The  result  was  a  failure,  and  the  financial  distress 
of  "the  company"  necessitated  a  foreclosure  of  the  mort- 
gages which  had  been  placed  upon  its  property.  This  event 
occurred  in  1877,  and  Mr.  B.  M.  Chambers,  the  holder  of  the 
largest  number  of  ])onds,  became  the  purchaser. 

Under  the  management  of  Mr.  Chambers,  the  Times  has 
made  rapid  progress,  and  is  already  a  paper  of  no  small 
influence  in  the  politics  of  the  State.  The  present  manage- 
ment of  the  Times  has  accomplished  much  in  removing  the 
objections  which  were  alleged  against  the  paper  when  under 
the  control  of  others  in  the  past.  Steadily  and  surely  the 
paper  is  assuming  a  front  rank  among  the  great  journals  of 
the  country.  The  public  has  implicit  confidence  in  the  honor 
and  integrity  of  Mr.  Chambers,  and  the  staunch  support  given 
to  the  Democratic  party  endears  it  to  the  hearts  of  a  large 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  State.  Mr.  Richard  H.  Sylves- 
ter, an  accomplished  journalist,  had  long  had  connection  in  an 
editorial  capacity  with  the  Tiynes,  and  much  of  the  success  which 
has  attended  the  pai)er  is  due  to  his  ability  and  character  as  a 
writer  and  gentleman.     He  is  now  principal  editorial  writer, 


4 


THE    PRESS. 


547 


THE  DAILY  JOURNAL. 

This  paper  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  old  Journal  of  Commerce, 
a  weekly  newspaper  established  in  1H58.  About  l.S71,Mr. 
W.  V.  Wolcott,  in  connection  with  some  other  gentlemen,  con- 
ceived the  project  of  establishing  a  daily  news2)aper.  The 
Journal  was  commenced  as  an 
afternoon  paper,  under  the 
editorial  management  of  Mr. 
Hume,  a  versatile  and  forcible 
writer.  The  proprietors  had 
many  obstacles  to  surmount,  but 
they  succeeded  in  placing  the 
evening  Journal  on  a  paying 
basis.  Afterward,  about  1875-6, 
the  Journal  w^as  changed  into  a 
morning  newspaper,  and  as- 
sumed a  place  in  the  public  es- 
teem which  was  a  prophecy  of 
the  steady  growth  which  has 
marked  its  subsequent  history. 
The  Journal  may  now  be  re- 
garded as  a  tirmly  established 
institution  ;  and  the  sprightliness 
of  its  local  department  and  the 
ability  of  its  editorial  articles 
have  secured  for  it  not  only  a 
large  circulation,  but  no  little  ^ 
influence  in  ffivino;  direction  to      ^ 

public  opinion.  Mr.  Hume  has  been  editorial  director  since 
the  commencement  of  the  publication  of  the  paper.  Major 
Emory  S.  Foster  is  the  chief  editorial  writer  on  the  Journal. 


THE  EVENING  DISPATCH. 

The  Dispatch  is  the  oldest  evening  journal  in  St.  Louis. 
Long  ago  Charles  G.  Ramsey,  Es(i.,  publi>i.e.l  Ww  Evenhnj 
^eivs.     This  was  in  the  troublous  war  times,  and  Mr.  Kain>ey. 


548  TOUR   OF   ST.    LOUIS. 

who  is  a  gentleman  of  great  independence  and  boldness,  suc- 
ceeded in  incurring  the  ill  opinion  of  the  military  authorities, 
which  was  not  particularly  advantageous  to  the  interests  of  the 
Eveninrj  JVews.  The  Dispatch  had  its  birth  about  that  time 
as  the  lineal  and  legitimate  successor  of  the  Evening  N^ews, 
Messrs.  Foy  and  McHenry  conducted  the  Dispatch  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  with  marked  success.  It  was  eventually  sold  to 
other  parties — Mr.  D.  Robert  Barclay  and  Mr.  W.  H.  Swift 
being  of  the  number.  Mr.  Swift  edited  the  paper  for  a  brief 
time,  when  Mr.  D.  Robert  Barclay,  who  owned  a  controlling 
interest,  having  formed  a  new  company,  became  President, 
and  Stilson  Hutchins  manager  and  chief  editor.  Like  all  the 
newspapers  enterprises  of  that  gentleman,  the  Z>e.<?pa^cA  proved 
unsuccessful  to  his  associates,  as  a  financial  enterprise.  The 
paper  was  finally  offered  for  sale,  and  the  controlling  interest 
became  the  property  of  Mr.  W.  R.  Allison,  formerly  of  Steu- 
benville,  Ohio,  who  conducted  the  paper  as  President  of  the 
company  imtil  the  spring  of  1878,  when  the  Dispatch  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Wolcott  &  Hume  Company,  proprietors  of  the 
Daily  Journal^  The  Dispatch  is  a  newsy  paper,  devoted  to 
the  interests  of  the  National  or  Greenback  party,  and  the  only 
evening  paper  belonging  to  the  Western  Associated  Press. 


THE  EVENING  POST. 

The  youngest,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  vivacious, 
brightest,  and  interesting  of  St,  Louis  newspapers,  is  the 
Evening  Post.  The  first  number  of  this  paper  was  issued 
January  10,  1878,  by  John  A.  Dillon,  Esq.,  formerly  editor 
of  the  Globe,  and  then  on  the  staff  of  the  Globe-Democrat 
until  within  a  few  days  of  that  time.  The  character  of  the 
paper  was  clearly  foreshadowed  by  the  first  number.  It  was 
to  be  newsy,  to  give  prominence  to  all  local  incidents  worthy 
of  being  noted,  to  be  independent  in  all  things,  and  neutral 
in  no  contingency  ;  it  was  to  be  literary  in  character  and  tone, 
removed  from  prosy  dullness,  and  yet  from  poetical  extrava- 
gance. Its  first  promise  has  been  kept.  The  Dost  has  im- 
proved with  its  weeks  and  months  of  existence.     The  Saturday 


THE    PRESS. 


549 


j§$7^^     vi  -. 


evening  edition  of  the  Post  is  a  full-sized  oct:ivo  journal,  not 
surpassed  in  'excellence  by  any  Wcst(>in  journal.  From  tlu; 
very  beginning  of  its  journal-life,  the  Post  has  commended 
itself  to  the  public,  and  its  merits  have  won  for  it  success 
by  securing  for  it  a  large 
j)atronage.  The  pai)cr 
is  published  by  a  com" 
l^any  duly  incorporated, 
but,  as  yet,  Messrs.  Dil- 
lon and  Cunningham 
have  borne  the  burden,  ^ 
and  retain  the  stock. 

The  Evening  Post  is  r§ 
a  member  of  the  Na- 
tional Associated  Press, 
and  receives  a  great  por- 
tion of  its  news  over 
the  Atlantic  &  Pacific 
Telegraph  lines.  Much 
of  its  news  is  obtained 
in  the  way  of  special 
dispatches  however,  and  the  paper  has  shown  a  commendable 
enterprise  in  laying  out  large  sums  of  money  on  this  depart- 
ment. 


■\ 


JOHN  A,  DILLON. 


VOLKSTIMME  DES  WESTENS. 

This  is  the  youngest  of  the  daily  German  journals.  It  is 
published  by  a  literary  association  of  the  '^  \\'()rkingman's 
Party."  It  is  the  recognized  organ  of  the  Gcniian-Aincrican 
Socialists  of  the  West.  Dr.  A.  Otto  Walstor,  editor  in  chirf 
of  the  Volkstimme,  is  a  leader  of  the  "  Workingman's  Parly  *' 
in  the  United  States,  and  unquestional)ly  possesses  consider- 
able ability.  The  enterprise  from  the  very  first  has  proved  a 
success.  Although  at  this  writing  (June,  1S7S)  less  than  a 
year  old,  the  Volkstimme  Pes  Westens  has  gained  a  very  largo 
circulation,  and  exerts  a  powerful  influence  among  the  adhe- 
rents of  socialism. 


550 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


THE   ANZEIGER  DES  WESTENS. 

The  Anzeiger  Des  Westens  is  the 
oldest  of  the  German-American  news- 
papers published  in  St.  Louis.  It  is 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  scholarly 
newspapers  published  in  the  German 
lanjjuao^e  in  America.  Mr.  Carl 
Daenzer  has  been  for  many  years 
proprietor  as  well  as  chief  editor  of 
the  paper. 

The  Anzeiger  may  always  be  relied 
upon  for  an  open  avowal  of  the  convic- 
tions and  sentiments  of  its  editor. 
While  it  generally  supports  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Democratic  party,  it  can  not 
be  classed  as  a  party  organ.  Its  utter- 
ances are  always  independent  and  manly. 


THE  AMERIKA.. 


The  Amerika  was  originated  to  more  fully  meet  the  wants 
and  views  of  the  German  Roman  Catholic  population  of  the 
West.  It  is  published  by  a  German  Literary  Association. 
The  Amerika  is  conducted  with  marked  ability  by  Mr.  Anton 
Helmich,  its  chief  editor,  assisted  by  a  corps  of  competent 
editors  and  reporters.  This  journal  circulates  largely,  and 
exerts  no  small  political  and  social  influence. 


THE  WESTLICHE  POST. 

The  Wesiliche  Post  has  long  exerted  a  very  large  influence 
in  forming  the  opinions  of  German-American  citizens  in  the 
West.  The  jPo.s^  has  enjoyed  the  character  of  being  exceed- 
ingly well  edited.  Secretary  Carl  Scliurz  was  for  some  years 
one  of  its  chief  editorial  writers,  and  Dr.  Emil  Preetorius,  its 
present  able  chief  editor,  was  associated  with  him  in  his  labors. 
The  Post  is  published  by  Plate,  Olshausen  &  Co. 


THE    PRESS. 


551 


A.  B.  CUNNINGHAM.— CoRKKsroNDENT. 

A.  B.  Cunningham  has  gone  rapidly  to  the  front  of  St.  Louis 
journalism  during  the  last  few  jears,and  hids  fair  to  attain  an 
enviable  prominence.  The  fact  that  he  has  received  his  news- 
paper training  at  the  hands 
of  Mr.  J.  B.  McCullagh, 
on  the  Globe  and  Globe 
Democrat,  is  a  sufficient 
guarantee  that  he  has  been 
well  trained.  Mr.  Cun- 
ningham has  never  sought 
distinction  in  any  peculiar 
field  of  journalistic  writing, 
but  as  a  collector  of  news, 
to  which  he  has  given 
special  attention,  he  has 
hardly  an  equal  in  the 
West.  He  has  been  for 
several  3'ears  the  success- 
ful correspondent  of  the 
New  York  Herald,  Chicago  ^ 
Tribune,   Cincinnati    En-  a.  b.  cLNMNi.iiAM. 

quirer,  and  other  papers  east  of  St.  Louis.  As  a  writer  he 
possesses  rare  versatility  in  imaginative  and  descriptive  effort, 
and  in  style  is  noted  for  vigor  and  perspicuity.  At  present  he 
is  Mr.  Dillon's  managing  and  city  editor  on  the  Eveninrj  Post, 
and  the  columns  of  that  lively  paper  bear  ample  evidence  of 
his  skill  and  enterprise. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

The  Hlas  is  the  organ  of  the  Bohemian  Roman  Catholics, 
and  is  a  very  neatly  printed  folio,  issued  once  every  week. 

The  Herald  Hes  Glaubens  is  a  German  weekly  d(>voted  to 
the  interests  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  Gomercio  del  Valle  is  a  bi-monthly  journal  published 
in  Spanish  and  English,  devoted  to  the  conmiercial  inier.>ts  of 


552 


TOUR    OF    ST.    LOUIS. 


the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  importance  of  commercial  rela- 
tion with  Spanish-American  countries. 

The  Lutheraner  is  a  monthly  German  paper  devoted  to  the 
cause  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church. 

There  are  a  large  number  of  weeklies  published  in  the 
English  language  ;  religion,  literature,  arts  and  sciences,  inclu- 
ding the  dramatic  and  sporting  circles,  are  all  ably  represented. 


EXQUAVIXCr.  S.'ia 

LAMPE  &  LAMBRECIIT. 

This  firm,  established  at  No.  324  North  Third  Street,  i« 
engaged  in  the  business  of  sketching,  designing,  and  engrav- 
ing on  wood.  The  character  of  the  work  executed  hy  these 
gentlemen  will  suffer  nothing  by  comparison  with  the  work  of 
the  most  distinguished  artists  in  their  line  of  business.  Sev- 
eral of  the  illustrations  of  this  volume  were  executed  by  them. 
While  designing  and  engraving  on  wood  is  made  a  specialty, 
still  they  do  not  confine  themselves  exclusively  to  that  line  of 
business.  Sketches  are  made  for  fine  show-cards  and  posters, 
covers  for  music,  periodical  publications,  and  other  work  in 
that  line.  Lithographing,  and  fine  color  work  designs  receive 
a  share  of  attention  at  their  hands.  All  work  done  by  this 
firm  is  executed  in  the  very  highest  stylo  of  the  engraver's 
art.  Promptitude  in  filling  all  orders  entrusted  to  them  is  a 
characteristic  of  the  firm  of  Lampe  &  Lambrecht. 


INDEX 


_         _  I'AGK. 

Art  in  St.  Louis,        ---...  rr 

Art  at  "Washington  University,  -           -           ~           .           .           .  qq 

Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  St.  Louis,  ------  g8 

Art  Exhibit,  Fair  Grounds,        ---...  -g 

Academy,  Visitation,  Female,          ---...  <,7 

Allen,  Hon.  Thos.            -           -            -            -           -           -            .  i;j2 

Architects,       -------..  2O8 

Aloe  &  Hernsteiu,            ---....  o  "0 

Anheuser  Company,  E.         -            -           -           -           .           .            .  ^T'J 

Auctioneers,          -           -           -           -           -           .           .           -  :}15 

Adams,  Dr.  Geo.  F.             ----...  .-jo."! 

Adams,  R.  F.        -           -           -           -           .           .           .           -  ^42 

Astrologers,    -.------.  419 

Asylum,  St.  Ann's           .......  490 

Asylum,  Blind            .---.,..  4<)7 

Asylum,  Insane    --------  49;) 

Asylum,  St  Vincent  -.....-.  509 

American  Wine  Co.,        -.-..-.  282 

Beaux  and  Belles,     -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -  440 

Bessehl's  Bazaar  and  Curiosity  Shop,   -----  29s 

Bridge,            ---------  125 

Banking  Business,           -           -.-           -           -           -           -  171 

Broadway  Savings  Bank,      -           -           -           -           -           -           -  1 7j 

Bank  of  Commerce,         -           -           .           -           -           -           -  177 

Bartholow,  Lewis  &  Co.,      -           -           -           -           -           -           -  178 

Barr,  Wm.  &  Co. 1!»2 

Blell,  C.  E. 2o;j 

Bauman,  L.  &  Co.,          .....--  20.'> 

Buck,  M.  M.  &  Co., 2.-)t; 

Beard  &  Bro.,      --------  2:>S 

Breweries,       .----...-  27."» 

Bakers, 2!tO 

Bakery,  Vienna  Model          .---.-.  2'J'J 

[655] 


556  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Books  and  Stationery,           -           -           -           -           -           ...  303 

Boots  and  Shoes,              ---__-.  309 

Brown  &  Hilder,        -           -          ._           _           -           _           .           -  313 

Baths,  Turkish      -----.._  325 

Blackman,  James       -           --           __            _            _            .  335 

Becktold  &  Co.,  Book  Binding,              -           -           ...  341 

|Bags  and  Bagging,    --^--.--  229 

Beauties  of  St.  Louis,      --__-_-  339 

Boys  and  Girls,  Wandering             -           -           -           ...  400 

Burglars'  Tools                -...,_.  503 

Beaux  and  Belles,     -.-..,--  440 

Bright  Side,  The               -           -           -           -           .           -           -  482 
Commerce  of  St.  Louis,       .-...--22 

City  Hall, 34 

Court  House,  ---------SG 

Custom  House  and  Post  Office,  ---.--  37 
Comique  Theatre,       --------58 

Conant,  A.  J.        -            -            -           -            -            -            -            -  G9 

Chase,  Harry  -  -  -  -  -«-  -  _  -76 

Colleges,  Universities,  etc.,        ------  90 

College,  Jones'  Commercial           -           -           -           -           -           -  98 

College,  Missouri  Medical           _           _           _           _           .            .  lOl 

Children,  Unfortunate           .-.--.-  613 

Churches,  -            -            -            -           -           -            -            -            -  108 

Cathedral,  Roman  Catholic  -            -.----  108 

Centenary  Church,  M.  E.           -            -            -            -            -            -  109 

Clayton  Church,         -            -            -            -            -            -            -            -  111 

Church  of  the  Messiah,  Unitarian,       -----  m 

Church  of  the  Unity,  Unitarian,      ------  112 

Christ  Church,  P.  E.,      -           -           -           -           -           -           -  113 

Central  Presbyterian  Church,          ------  115 

Crawford,  D.  &  Co.,        ...---           -  19.5 

Cheever,  Burchard  «fc  Co.,     -           -            -           -           -           -            -  212 

Carriages  and  Buggies,   -------  218 

Chase,  H.  &  L.           -            -            -            -            -            -            -            -  229 

Collier  White  Lead  and  Oil  Works,      -----  243 

Curtis  &  Co.,  -            --__..-.  257 

Curamings,  J.  K.  -            -            -            -            --            -            -  258 

Crackers  and  Jumbles,         -------  290 

Caf6,  Tony  Faust's           -           -           -           -           -           -           -  297 

Cafe,  Vienna  Bakery             -           -           -           -           -           -           -  293 


INDEX.  5^7 

Curiosity  Shop,  Bessehl's    -------  2us 

Carroll  &  Powell, ^o^ 

Coal  and  Coke  Co.,  Carbondale      -           -           -           .           .           ■  m: 

Crimes  of  a  Great  City,  ---....  _^^^^ 

Charities  of  the  City,            ---....  ^j^o 

Court,  Police        -           -----..  {^jo 

Court,  Criminal          ----....  ^^.j 

Cemeteries,  Ghouls  of  the         -           -           .           -           .           -  42'J 

Corpses,  Traffic  in     -            -           -           -           .           .           .           -  4:<j 

Customs,  Drinking          ----...  473 

Dry  Goods, -  181 

Davis,  S.  C.  &  Co., I8I 

Dodd,  Brown  &  Co.,             -----..  137 

Dollar  Store,  St.  Bernard           ------  201 

Drugs, 210 

Dresser,  L.           ---.-...  223 

Deere,  Mansur  &  Co.,           --.-...  25S) 

Durgin,  F.  A.        -            -           -           -           -           .           .           .  2G4 

Dozler,  Weyl  &  Co.,  -           .--....  oqq 

Dental  Instruments,        --.--..  32I 

Dental  Rooms,  New  York    ---....  ajli 

Dunlevy,  A.  C.  -               -            -           -           -           -           -           .  3U8 

Drinking  Customs,    ----.-..  473 

Drama  of  Life  Played  in  Police  Courts,           .           -           .           _  392 

Depravity,  Clandestine         ------.  449 

Days  beneath  the  Green  Forest  Shade,  -  -  -  .378 

Edged  Tools,  -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -  257 

Eichbaura,  Geo.  C.           -           -           -           -           -           -           -  71 

Express  Business,      -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -17'J 

Excelsior  Manufacturing  Co.,   -           -           -           -           -         ,  -  231 

Ewald,  L.  P.  &  Co., 320 

Elevator,  Advance           ..----.  2G'J 

Elevator,  St.  Louis    -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -271 

Elevator,  Central              -.-..--  272 

Faust,  Tony,  Cafd  and  Oysters,       -           -           -           -           -           -  207 

Fair  Grounds,       .---..--  52 

Fine  Arts,  St.  Louis  Academy         ------  G8 

Fair  Grounds,  Art  Exhibit,         ..-..-  78 

First  M.  E.  Church, HO 

First  Presbyterian  Church,         -           -           -            -           -            -  H^ 

Fourth  Baptist  Church,         -           -           -           -           -           -           -  119 


558 


INDEX, 


Fairbanks'  Scales,     -  -  - 

Fruits,         .  -  -  -  - 

Flouring  Mills, 

Fire  Department,  -  - 

Four  Courts,    -  -  -  - 

Forest  Park,  .  .  -  - 

Fortune  Tellers,         .  .  - 

Gratiot  Street  Prison,      -  -  - 

Globe  Theatre, 

Gutherz,  Carl        .  -  -  - 

Griffin,  H.  &  Son, 

Glass  Works,  St.  Louis    -  -  - 

Groceries,  Nicholson's 

Gaff,  Fleishman  &  Co.,    - 

Garneau,  Jos.  &  Co., 

Gray  &  Baker  Book  and  Stationery  Co., 

Gray,  Willie  H.  -  -  - 

Giesecke,  Meysenburg  &  Co.,     - 

Gray,  Bowman  «fc  Co., 

Gibert  Bros.,        .  -  -  - 

Globe-Democrat  Job  Printing  Co., 

Ghouls  of  the  Cemeteries, 

Gamblers,  Professional 

History  of  St.  Louis,        -  .  - 

Hotel,  Planters'  _  -  - 

Hotel,  Lindell       -  .  -  - 

Harney,  Paul  E.         - 

House  Furnishing  _  .  - 

Home  Decorations,    -  -  - 

Hardware,  Heavy  .  .  - 

Horses  and  Mules,     -  -  - 

Hides,        -  -  -  -  - 

Hot  Springs, 

Arlington  Hotel,       -  -  - 

Grand  Central  Hotel,      - 
Waverly  Hotel,  .  -  - 

Big  Iron  Bath  House,    - 
House  of  Refuge,  .  -  - 

House  of  the  Guardian  Angel, 
Houses,  Tenement  .  .  - 

Hells,  Gambling        -  -  - 


PAGE. 

-  221 
301 

-  339 
384 

-  526 

48 

-  419 

42 

-  58 
75 

-  222 
258 

-  286 
288 

-  292 
303 

-  307 
309 

-  318 
326 

-  349 
429 

-  474 

5 

-  40 
41 

-  74 
212 

-  311 
320 

-  334 
335 

-  3:1 
361 

-  363 
364 

-  365 
513 

-  494 
412 

-  474 


INDEX.  .').');» 

rxnK. 

Halls,  Wiiie  and  Beer           '--....  47^ 

How  St,  Louis  is  Kept  Orderly,            -----  388 

Humanity,  Manifestations  of           -----           .  482 

Ice  Company,  Mississippi          ----..  302 

Isaacs,  J.  L.               -           -           -           -           -           .           .           -  3] 1 

Iron,           -           ----....  3J0 

Insurance,       ----.-...  328 

Iron  Cornices,  Galvanized           --....  333 

Insurance  Co.  Travelers       ----...  340 

Insane,  The           -           -           -           -           -           -           .           -  499 

Jones'  Commercial  College,             --....  j^s 

Jewelry,     -           - -           -  20.') 

Jaccard,  E.  &  Co.,     ---.-...  227 

Joy,  G.  L.  &  Co.,             --.-.-.  287 

Jail,  The          ---------  C33 

Jones,  Jonathan    --------98 

Juvenile  OflFenders,    -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -  r>13 

Kretschmar,  Howard  S.  -           -           -           -           -           -           -  70 

Kindergarten,            --------  8G 

Kirkwood  Baptist  Church,         -           -           -           -           -           -  119 

Keleher,  P.  F.  &  Co., 170 

Linden  Hotel, 41 

Libraries,        ---.-.---79 

Legg,  J.  B.  &  Co., 208 

Leather  and  Binders'  Materials,      -.-.--  222 

Lemp,  W.  J. 275 

Liquors,  Wholesale    --------  28r> 

Lewis,  O.  J.  «fc  Co., •'^l"' 

Leslie,  A.  M.  &  Co., -^^l 

Life  Association  of  America,     ------  329 

Land  and  Immigration  Co.,  Texas  ------  31.1 

Lonergan  &  Thiel,          .-..---  334 

Lampe  &  Lanibrecht,            .------  G.VJ 

Life  Among  the  Lowly,  -            ------  412 

Lafayette  Park, •!•"• 

Markets,     ---------  3S 

Market,  Union ^^ 

Market,  Lucas      --------  40 

McDowell's  Old  College, *'^ 

Music  in  St.  Louis, 69 


560 


INDEX. 


Meeker,  Jos.  E.         -  -  -  .  .  . 

Marple,  W.  L. 

Miles,  Geo.  D.  ----.. 

Mercantile  Library,         -  -  -  .  _ 

Medical  College,  Missouri    -  -  -  -  - 

Mt.  Calvary  Church,  P.  E.,        - 

Mt.  Sinai  Chapel,        -----. 
Merchants'  Exchange,     -  -  -  _  . 

Missouri  Pacific  Railway,     -  -  _  .  _ 

Mann,  H.  D.  &  Co., 

Milliner}',         -----__ 

Mermocl,  Jaccanl  it  Co.,  -  -  _  . 

Mellier,  A.  A. 

Music,        --.-.., 
Manufacturing,  ---... 

Manufacturing  Co..  Excelsior    -  -  -  . 

Manufacturing  Co.,  Semple  &  Birge  -  .  _ 

Mantel  and  Grate  Co.,  St.  Louis  -  -  » 

Machiner}-,      ---.... 

Machinery,  Farm  -  -  -  .  - 

Milford's  Restaurant,  -  -  -  -  . 

Machinery  Merchants,  -  -  _  _ 

Mj'Stic  St.  Louis,        ----__ 

Metropolitan  Vagabonds,  -  -  -  - 

Morgue,  The  -  -  -  - 

Merchants,  Outdoor         -  -  -  .  _ 

Murderers,  Some  Peculiarities  of   - 

Men  who  Battle  witli  the  Red  Demon, 

Millinery,       ----..> 

Metal  Stamping  and  Enameling  Co.,  -  -  - 

Mississippi  Ice  Co.,  -----_ 

Mills,  Yaegers'    ------ 

New  York  Dental  Rooms,    -  -  -  -  - 

National  Stock  Yards,    -  -  -  -  - 

North  Presbyterian  Church,  .  .  _  . 

Nut  and  Bolt  Manufacturing  Co.,  St.  Louis  Hot  Pressed 

Nicholson,  D. 

Newell,  B.  H.        - 

Night  in  the  Streets,  -  .  .  .  _ 

Olympic  Theatre,  .... 

Opera  House,  DeBar's  -  -  .  -  - 


PAGE. 

-  72 
76 

-  78 
79 

-  101 
113 

-  121 
123 

-  IGS 
200 

-  20.5 
207. 

-  210 
214 

-  22» 
231 

-  350 
237 

-  248 
250 

-  29G 
318 

-  410 
425 

-  533 
435 

-  4C8 
384 

-  350 
267 

-  302 
339 

-  323 
331 

-  115 
239 

-  286 
335 

-  458 

56 

-  57 


INDEX. 

Optical  and  Surgical  Instruments. 

Oil  Co.,  Western 

Oysters,  Milford's 

Oysters,  Tony  Faust's 

O'Fallon  Park,      -  -  -  . 

Orderly.  How  St.  Louis  is  Kept 

Occult  Arts,  Professors  of  -  - 

Peculiarities  of  City  Tramps, 

Pictures  of  Out-Door  Merchants. 

Peculiarities  of  Murderers, 

Public  Institutions,  -  .  . 

Planters'  House,        .  .  _ 

Parks — Lafayette, 

Tower  Grove, 

O'Fallon, 

Forest,  _  _  . 

Public  School  Library,    -  -^ 

Public  Schools,  -  -  - 

Pine  Street  Presbyterian  Church, 
Pilgrim  Congregational  Church,     - 
Papin,  Eugene  &  Co.,      -  -  - 

Paints,  Ready  Mixed 
Photography,        -  .  -  - 

Printing  Co.,  Globe-Democrat  Job 
Police,  Metropolitan        .  -  - 

Pariahs  in  the  Docks, 
Poor,  The  -  -  -  -  - 

Provident  Association, 
Press  of  St.  Louis,  The  -  -     "      - 

Police  Courts,  Drama  of  Life  Played  in 
Palaces,  Whisky  -  -  -  - 

Eabuska,  Theo.         .  .  - 

Railways,  .  _  -  - 

Real  Estate,    -  -  -  - 

Kumsey,  L.  M.  &  Co..     -  -  - 

Railway  Supplies, 

Restaurants,         _  -  -  - 

Reilley  &  Woolfort,  - 
Resorts,  Summer  .  -  - 

Rogues'  Gallery, 
Revelations  of  the  Hours  of  Darkness, 

36 


5(J1 

I'AUK 

2  JO 

-  210 
21)0 

-  *J97 

•IS 

-  388 
■Ml) 

-  425 
435 

-  408 

.•JO 

-  40 
45 

-  47 
48 

-  48 
81 

-  83 
115 

-  no 

218 

-  247 
342 

-  349 
388 

-  392 
520 

-  520 
530 

-  392 
478 

1 1 
147 

-  228 
248 

-  2cG 
294 

-  334 
378 

-  528 
458 


562  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

St.  Louis,  History  of       -------  5 

Commerce  of-  -  -  -  -  -  -22 

Future  Commercial  Entrepot,         -           -           -           -  2G 

How  Kept  Orderly,          -           -           -           -           -           -  388 

South  Pass  Jetties,           -_-.---  28 

Shaw's  Garden,          -.__-_--  50 

Sketch  Club,  St.  Louis C7 

School  of  Art  and  Design,  St.  Louis           -            -           -           -            -  G8 

St.  Louis  University,       -           -           -           -           -           -           -  93 

St.  Louis  Seminary,   -  -  --  -  -  -  -95 

Seminary,  Mrs.  Cuthbert's          -           -           ~           -"-           -  95 

St.  Alphonsus  Church,          -            -            -            -            -            -           -  109 

St.  John  the  Evangelist  Church,            .            .           -            .            -  109 

St.  George's  Church,              -           -           -           -           -           -           -  112 

Second  Presbyterian  Church,     ------  114 

Second  Baptist  Church,         --.._--  us 

St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern  Railway.          .            -            -  147 

St.  Louis  &  Southeastern  Railway,            -            -            -     .       -            -  155 

St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  Railway,     -----  158 

St.  Louis,  Kansas  City  &  Northern  Railway,        .            -            -           -  164 

St.  Louis  National  Bank,            --.._.  171 

Story  &  Camp,            .--.-.--  214 

Sewing  Machines,             --_.-_-  215 

Singer  Manufacturing  Co.,   -------  215 

Scales,        -           -           -            -            -     ■      -           -           -            -  221 

Stamping  Co.,  St.  Louis       -------  235 

Semple  &  Birge  Manufacturing  Co.,    -----  250 

Saws  and  Edged  Tools,        -------  257 

Safes, 258 

Silverware,      ---------  2G4 

Stone-iron  Ware,  -------           -  2G7 

Stamping,  Metal  and  Enameling  Co.,          _            _           _            _            -  2G7 

Salt,  Foreign  and  Domestic       ------  287 

Sprague  &  Butler,      --------  294 

Shepherd  &  Ginocchio ,    -            -            -            -            -           -            -  301 

Sporting  Goods,          --------  313 

Steel,           -           - 320 

Surgical  Apparatus.              -            -            -            -            -            -            -  321 

Shirts,  Keep's       --------  32G 

Stock  Yards,  St.  Louis  National     -            -           -            -           -            -  331 

Shot  Tower,  St.  Louis     -------  336 


INDEX. 


5G3 

PAi.i; 
3M 

-  3B0 
378 

-  40(5 

4:<ri 

-  4V.) 
3'JG 

-  458 
485 

-  4SC 
DCO 

-  325 

:mg 

-  i-l'J 
5G 


Secret  Service,      .----•* 
Stokes,  J.        ---""*  ' 

Summer  Pastimes,  ---""' 

Street  Arabs,  ---"'"' 

Street  Vendors,     -----"" 
Social  Undercurrents,  -  -  "  "  ' 

Swindlers,  Tricks  of         -  -  -  "  *  " 

Streets,  Night  in  the  -  -  "  "  " 

Sunday  School,  Biddle  Market  -  -  -  "  " 

Street  Boys' Home,    ----"' 
St.  Vincent's  Institution  for  the  Insane, 
Turkish  Baths,  -  -  "  "  ' 

Travelers'  Insurance  Co., 

Traffic  in  Corpses  for  Dissecting  Rooms,  -  -  -  ' 

Theatres— Olympic.        -  -  '  '  '  .  .      57 

DeBar\s.  -  -  -  '  "  "  .^ 

Comiquc  .        -  -  "  "  .58 

Globe.       ---""'  .73 

Tracy,  John  M.     -  -  "  "  ...    113 

Trinity  Church,  p.  E.,  -  "  "  .  -  117 

Trinitarian  Congregational  Cimrch,      -  -  "  "  _    ^^^ 

Third  Baptist  Church,            -  "           '                              .            .          120 

Temple  of  the  Gates  of  Truth.  -           -           '           '     ^           ^               ^^^ 

Tunnel,  The  Railway            -  '           '                 _           .           .          22C 

Thompson,  Teasdale&  Co.,  -            "           "                 _           .           .    262 

Type  Foundry,  St.  Louis      -  -                                        .           .          2S6 

Teas,  Nicholson's            -  "           '                 ^                                   .343 

Texas  Land  and  Immigration  Co.,  "            '      _           .           .            47 

Tower  Grove  Park,  -  '  ...    412 

Tenement  People  of  St.  Louis,        -  -  ^  _         ^^^ 

Tramps,  City         -  "  "  .  .  -    39G 

Tricks  of  Thieves  and  Swindlers,    -  -  "  .440 

Undercurrents,  Social     -  "  "  ...      90 

Universities  and  Colleges.     -  -  "  .  .  110 

Union  M.E.  Church.      -  "  "  '     ^  _  _  ,     -j.^^ 

Union  Depot,  -           -           "  "                              _           _            .          09;} 

Vienna  Model  Bakery,    -  "            '                  ^           _        .  _           .97 

Visitation  Female  Academy,  -           "           "     ^           _           .101 

Vandalia  Railroad,          -  "           "                            ...    '^47 
Vane,  Calvert  &  Co., 


564  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Vagabonds,  Metropolitan,          .           .           .          ^           -           .  425 

Vendors,  Street          ...-.-.,  435 

Water-works,        -.------30 

Winchester,  Frank     -  -  -  --  -  -  -75 

Washington  University,  -------90 

Washington  University,  Art  at        -           -           -           -           -           -  66 

AVashington  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,      -           -           .           -  115 

Wear,  J.  H.— Boogher  &  Co.,       -            -            -            -            -            -  189 

Wheeler  &  Wilson, 216 

Wardwell  Manufacturing  Co.,         -            -           -     .      -           -           -  254 

Watches,  Nickel   -           -           -        •  -           -           -           -           -  223 

Woolens  and  Wool  Yarn.      -------  226 

Wolff,  M.  A.  &  Co., 22s 

White  Lead  and  Oil  Works,  Collier             -            -            -            -            -  243 

Western  Brewery,  W.J.  Lemp's          -----  275 

Whisky  Palaces,         .--.---_  478 

Western  Oil  Co. ,  -           -           - 240 

Wine  Company,  American    -------  282 

Wood  &  Lee,        --------  285 

Ways  that  are  Dark,  -            -            -            -            -            -            -            -  39G 

Wandering  Boys  and  Girls,         ------  40G 

Women,  Fallen           .----.-.  440 

Yeast,  Compressed           -------  288 

Yaeger  Milling  Co.,  -            -            -           -           -            -           -            -  339 


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